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D. Gordon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Quiet Talks about Jesus + +Author: S. D. Gordon + +Release Date: July 3, 2004 [EBook #12809] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ABOUT JESUS *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<div id="tp"> + +<h1 class="title">Quiet Talks about Jesus</h1> + +<p class="byline">by</p> + +<h2 class="author">S. D. Gordon</h2> + +<h3>Author of "Quiet Talks on Power,"<br /> and "Quiet Talks on Prayer"</h3> + + +</div> + + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<div id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> +<br /><br /> +<p><a href="#ahead">A Bit Ahead</a></p> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#part1">The Purpose of Jesus.</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch01">The Purpose in Jesus' Coming</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02">The Plan for Jesus' Coming</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03">The Tragic Break in the Plan</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04">Some Surprising Results of the Tragic Break</a></li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><a href="#part2">The Person of Jesus.</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch05">The Human Jesus</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch06">The Divine Jesus</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch07">The Winsome Jesus</a></li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><a href="#part3">The Great Experiences or Jesus' Life.</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch08">The Jordan: The Decisive Start</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch09">The Wilderness: Temptation</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch10">The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch11">Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch12">Calvary: Victory</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch13">The Resurrection: Gravity Upward</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch14">The Ascension: Back Home Again Until----</a></li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><a href="#part4">Study Notes</a></li> +</ol> +</div> + + +<div class="epigraph"> +<p>"Show me, I pray thee, Thy glory."--<i>Moses</i>.</p> + +<p>"When I could not see for the glory of that light."--<i>Paul</i>.</p> + +<p>"But we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord +are transformed into the same image from glory to glory."--<i>Paul</i>.</p> + +<p>"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus +Christ."--<i>Paul</i>.</p> + +<div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"><div class="line"> "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,</div> +<div class="line"> I've lost sight of all beside,</div> +<div class="line"> So enchained my spirit's vision,</div> +<div class="line"> Looking at the Crucified."</div> +<div class="line"> --From <i>Winnowed Hymns</i>.</div> +</div></div> +</div> + + +<div id="ahead"> +<h2>A Bit Ahead</h2> + + + +<p>So far as I can find out, I have no theory about Jesus to make these talks +fit into. I have tried to find out for myself what the old Book of God +tells about Him. And here I am trying to tell to others, as simply as I +can, what I found. It was by the tedious, twisting path of doubt that I +climbed the hill of truth up to some of its summits of certainty. I am +free to confess that I am ignorant of the subject treated here save for +the statements of that Book, and for the assent within my own spirit to +these statements, which has greatly deepened the impression they made, and +make. There is no question raised here about that Book itself, but simply +a taking and grouping up together of what it says.</p> + +<p>Most persons simply <i>read</i> a book. A few <i>study</i> it, also. It is good to +read. It is yet better to go back over it and <i>study</i>, and meditate. Since +learning that the two books on power and prayer have been used in Bible +classes I have regretted not including study notes in them. For those who +may want to study about Jesus there has been added at the close a simple +analysis with references. The reading pages have been kept free of +foot-notes to make the reading smooth and easier. The analysis is so +arranged that one can quickly turn in reading to the corresponding +paragraph or page in the study notes.</p> + +<p>A great musician strikes the key-note of a great piece of music, and can +skilfully keep it ever sounding its melody through all the changes clear +to the end. It has been in my heart to wish that I could do something like +that here. If what has come to me has gotten out of me into these pages, +there will be found a dominant note of sweetest music--the winsomeness of +God in Jesus.</p> + +<p>It is in my heart, too, to add this, that I have a friend whose constant +presence and prayer have been the atmosphere of this little book in its +making.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="part" id="part1"> +<h2>I. The Purpose of Jesus</h2> + + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch01">The Purpose in Jesus' Coming.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02">The Plan for Jesus' Coming.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03">The Tragic Break In The Plan.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04">Some Surprising Results of the Break.</a></li> +</ol> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h3>The Purpose in Jesus' Coming</h3> + + + +<h4>God Spelling Himself out in Jesus.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that man can understand. God +and man used to talk together freely. But one day man went away from God. +And then he went farther away. He left home. He left his native land, +Eden, where he lived with God. He emigrated from God. And through going +away he lost his mother-tongue.</p> + +<p>A language always changes away from its native land. Through going away +from his native land man lost his native speech. Through not <i>hearing</i> God +speak he forgot the sounds of the words. His ears grew dull and then deaf. +Through lack of use he lost the power of <i>speaking</i> the old words. His +tongue grew thick. It lost its cunning. And so gradually almost all the +old meanings were lost.</p> + +<p>God has always been eager to get to talking with man again. The silence is +hard on Him. He is hungry to be on intimate terms again with his old +friend. Of course he had to use a language that man could understand. +Jesus is God spelling Himself out so man can understand. He is the A and +the Z, and all between, of the Old Eden language of love.</p> + +<p>Naturally enough man had a good bit of bother in spelling Jesus out. This +Jesus was something quite new. When His life spoke the simple language of +Eden again, the human heart with selfishness ingrained said, "That sounds +good, but of course He has some selfish scheme behind it all. This purity +and simplicity and gentleness can't be genuine." Nobody yet seems to have +spelled Him out fully, though they're all trying: All on the spelling +bench. That is, all that have heard. Great numbers haven't heard about Him +yet. But many, ah! <i>many</i> could get enough, yes, <i>can</i> get enough to bring +His purity into their lives and sweet peace into their hearts.</p> + +<p>But there were in His days upon earth some sticklers for the old spelling +forms. Not the oldest, mind you. Jesus alone stands for that. This Jesus +didn't observe the idioms that had grown up outside of Eden. These people +had decided that these old forms were the only ones acceptable. And so +they disliked Him from the beginning, and quarrelled with Him. These +idioms were dearer to them than life--that is, than <i>His</i> life. So having +quarrelled, they did <i>worse</i>, and then--softly--<i>worst</i>. But even in their +worst, Jesus was God spelling Himself out in the old simple language of +Eden. His best came out in their worst.</p> + +<p>Some of the great nouns of the Eden tongue--the <i>God</i> tongue--He spelled +out big. He spelled out <i>purity</i>, the natural life of Eden; and +<i>obedience</i>, the rhythmic harmony of Eden; and <i>peace</i>, the sweet music of +Eden; and <i>power</i>, the mastery and dominion of Eden; and <i>love</i>, the +throbbing heart of Eden. It was in biggest, brightest letters that <i>love</i> +was spelled out. He used the biggest capitals ever known, and traced each +in a deep dripping red, with a new spelling--s-a-c-r-i-f-i-c-e.</p> + + + +<h4>Jesus is God, following us up.</h4> + + +<p>You see, the heart of God had been breaking--<i>is</i> breaking over the ways +things have been going down on this planet. Folk fail to understand Him. +Worse yet, they misunderstand Him, and feel free to criticize Him. Nobody +has been so much slandered as God. Many are utterly ignorant of Him. Many +others who are not ignorant yet ignore Him. They turn their faces and +backs. Some give Him the cut direct. The great crowd in every part of the +world is yearning after Him: piteously, pathetically, most often +speechlessly yearning, blindly groping along, with an intense inner tug +after Him. They know the yearning. They feel the inner, upward tug. They +don't understand what it is for which they yearn, nor what will satisfy.</p> + +<p>For man was made to live in closest touch with God. That is his native +air. Out of that air his lungs are badly affected. This other air is too +heavy. It's malarial, and full of gases and germy dust. In it he chokes +and gasps. Yet he knows not why. He gropes about in the night made by his +own shut eyes. He doesn't seem to know enough to open them. And sometimes +he <i>will</i> not open them. For the hinge of the eyelid is in the will. And +having shut the light out, he gets tangled up in his ideas as to what <i>is</i> +light. He puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.</p> + +<p>Once man knew God well; close up. And that means <i>loved</i>, gladly, freely. +For here to know is to love. But one day a bad choice was made. And the +choice made an ugly kink in his will. The whole trouble began there. A man +sees through his will. That is his medium for the transmission of light. +If it be twisted, his seeing, his understanding, is twisted. The twist in +the will regulates the twist in the eye. Both ways, too, for a good change +in the will in turn changes the eyes back to seeing straight. He that is +willing to do the right shall clearly see the light.</p> + +<p>But that first kink seems to have been getting worse kinked ever since. +And so man does not see God as He is. Man is cross-eyed Godward, but +doesn't know it. Man is color-blind toward God. The blue of God's truth is +to him an arousing, angering red. The soft, soothing green of His love +becomes a noisy, irritating yellow. Nobody has been so much misunderstood +as God. He has suffered misrepresentation from two quarters: His enemies +and His friends. More from--which? Hard to tell. Jesus is God trying to +tell men plainly what He is really like.</p> + +<p>The world turned down the wrong lane, and has been going that way +pell-mell ever since. Yet so close is the wrong lane to the right that a +single step will change lanes. Though many results of being in the wrong +lane will not be changed by the change of lanes. It takes time to rest up +the feet made sore by the roughness of the wrong lane. And some of the +scars, where men have measured their length, seem to stay.</p> + +<p>The result of that wrong turning has been pitiable. <i>Separation from God</i>, +so far as <i>man</i> could make separation. There is no separation on God's +part. He has never changed. He remains in the world, but because of man's +turning his face away, He remains as a stranger, unrecognized. He remains +just where man left Him. And any one going back to that point in the road +will find Him standing waiting with an eager light glistening in His eyes. +<i>No</i>! That's not accurate. He is <i>a bit nearer</i> than ever He was. He is +following us up. He is only a step off. Jesus is God eagerly following us +up.</p> + + + +<h4>The Early Eden Picture.</h4> + + +<p>But one will never get to understand this Jesus until he gets a good look +at man as he was once, and as he is now. The key to understanding Jesus is +man, even as Jesus is the key to God. One must use both keys to get into +the inner heart of God. To get hold of that first key one must go back to +the start of things. The old Book of God opens with a picture that is +fascinating in its simplicity and strength. There is an unfallen man. He +is fresh from the hand of God, free of scar and stain and shrivelling +influence. He is in a garden. He is walking hand in hand with God, and +working side by side with God: friendship and partnership. Friends in +spirit: partners in service.</p> + +<p>The distinctive thing about the man is that he is <i>like God</i>. He and God +are alike. In this he differs from all creation. He is God's link between +Himself and His Creation. Particular pains is taken by repetition and +change of phrase to make clear and emphatic that it was in the very image +of God that man was made. Just what does it mean that we men were made in +God's likeness? Well, the thing has been discussed back and forth a good +bit. Probably we will not know fully till we know as we are known. In the +morning when we see Him we shall be like Him fully again. Then we'll know. +<i>That</i> morning's sun will clear up a lot of fog. But a few things can be +said about it now with a positiveness that may clear the air a bit, and +help us recognize the dignity of our being, and behave accordingly.</p> + +<p>Man came into being by the breath of God. God breathed Himself into man. +The breath that God breathed out came into man as life. The very life of +man is a bit of God. Man is of the essence of God. Every man is the +presence-chamber of God.</p> + +<p>God is a <i>Spirit. Man</i> is a spirit. He lives in a body. He thinks through +a mind. He <i>is</i> a spirit, using the body as a dwelling-place, and the +mind as his keenest instrument. All the immeasurable possibilities and +capacities of spirit being are in man.</p> + +<p>God is an <i>infinite</i> spirit. That is, we cannot understand Him fully. He +is very close to us. The relationship is most intimate, and tender, yet +His fulness is ever beyond our grasp and our ken. <i>Man</i> is infinite in +that he knows that God is infinite. Only like can appreciate like. He can +appreciate that he cannot appreciate God, except in part. He understands +that he does not understand God save in smaller part. He knows enough to +love passionately. And through loving as well as through knowing he knows +that there is infinitely more that he does not know. Only man of all +earth's creation knows this. In this he is like God. The difference +between God and man here is in the degree of infinity. That degree of +difference is an infinite degree. Yet this is the truth. But more yet: man +has this same quality <i>man</i>ward. He is infinite in that he cannot be fully +understood in his mental processes and motives. He is beyond grasp fully +by his fellow. Even one's most intimate friend who knows most and best +must leave unknown more than is known.</p> + +<p>God is an <i>eternal</i> spirit. He has always lived. He will live always. He +knows no end, at either end. All time before there was time, and after the +time-book is shut, is to Him a passing present. <i>Man</i> is an eternal +spirit, because of God. He will know no end. He will live always because +the breath of God is his very being.</p> + +<p>God is <i>love</i>. He yearns for love. He loves. And more, He <i>is</i> love. Man +is like God in his yearning for love, in his capacity for love, and in his +lovableness. Man must love. He lives only as he loves. True love, and only +that, is the real life. He will give up everything for love. He is +satisfied only as he loves and finds love. To love is greater than to be +loved. One cannot always have both. God does not. But every one may love. +Every one does love. And only as there is love, pure and true--however +overlaid with what is not so--only so is there life.</p> + +<p>God is <i>holy</i>. That word seems to include purity and righteousness. There +is utter absence of all that should not be. There is in Him all that +should be, and that in fulness beyond our thinking. Man was made holy. +There is in the Genesis picture of Eden a touch that for simplicity and +yet for revealing the whole swing of moral action is most vivid. In the +presence of conditions where man commonly, universally, the world around, +and time through, has been and is <i>most sensitive to suggestion of evil</i> +there is with this first man the utter absence of any thought of evil.<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> +In the light of after history there could be no subtler, stronger +statement than this of his holiness, his purity, at this stage.</p> + +<p>And in his <i>capacity for holiness</i>, in that intensest longing for purity, +and loathing of all else, that comes as the Spirit of God is allowed +sway, is revealed again the capacity for God-likeness. It is the prophetic +dawn within of that coming Eden when again we shall <i>see His face</i>, and +have the original likeness fully restored.</p> + +<p>God is <i>wise</i>, all-wise. Among the finest passages of the' Christian's +classic are those that represent God as personified wisdom. And here +wisdom includes all knowledge and justice. That the Spirit of God breathed +into man His own mental life is stated most keenly by the man who +proverbially embodied in himself this quality of wisdom. "The spirit of +man is the lamp of the Lord searching out the innermost parts." The +allusion is clearly to intellectual powers. There is in man the same +quality of mental keenness that searches into things as is in God. It is +often dulled, gripped by a sort of stupor, so overlaid you would hardly +guess it was there. But, too, as we all know, it often shines out with a +startling brilliance. It is less in degree than with God, but it is the +same thing, a bit of God in man. This explains man's marvellous +achievements in literature, in invention, in science, and in organization.</p> + +<p>Two light master-strokes of the etching point in the Eden picture reveal +the whole mental equipment of the man. The only sayings of Adam's +preserved for us are when God brought to him the woman. She is the +occasion for sayings that reveal the mental powers of this first man. +Fittingly it is so. Woman, when true to herself, has ever been the +occasion for bringing out the best in man. "And the man said, <i>this time</i> +it is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; <i>this</i> shall be called +woman, because out of man was this one taken. Therefore doth a man leave +his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they become one +flesh." ... "And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the +mother of all living." Here is revealed at a glance the keen mental powers +at work. Here is the simplicity of statement that marks the speech of +strong men. The whole forest is in a single acorn. The whole of a human +life is in the primal cell. The chemist knows the whole body by looking +into one drop of blood. Here is revealed in one glance the whole man. Mark +the keen sense of fitness in the naming of woman--the last and highest +creation. Adam was a philologist. His mind was analytical. Inferentially +the same keen sense of fitness guided in all the names he had chosen. Here +is recognition of the plan for the whole race, a simple unlabored +foresight into its growth. A man's relation to his wife, his God-chosen +friend, as being the closest of life, and above all others is recognized, +together with the consequent obligation upon him. She comes first of all. +She becomes the first of all his relationships. The man and the woman--one +man and one woman--united, make the true unit of society. Any disturbance +of that strikes at the very vitals of society.</p> + +<p>And God is a <i>Sovereign</i>--<i>the</i> sovereign of the vast swing of worlds. +<i>Man</i> likewise is a sovereign in the realm of nature, and over all the +lower creation. He was given dominion, kingship, over all the +earth-creation. Man is a king. He is of the blood royal. He was made to +command, to administrate, to reign. He is the judge of last appeals on the +bench of earth.</p> + +<p>But there is more here. The chief characteristic of an absolute sovereign +is the imperial power to choose, to decide. Man was made an absolute +sovereign in his own will. God is the absolute sovereign. He has made man +an absolute sovereign in one realm, that of his will, his power of choice. +There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute autocrat, where not +even God <i>can</i> come save as the autocrat desires it, that is in his will. +And if that "<i>can</i>" bother you, remember that it was God's sovereign act +that made it so. So that God remains sovereign in making man a sovereign +in the realm of his will. There every man sits in imperial solitude.</p> + +<p>Here then is the picture of man fresh from the hand of God. A spirit, in a +body, with an unending life, partly infinite, like God in his capacity for +love, for holiness, and wisdom, with the gift of sovereignty over the +lower creation, and in his own will. Like Him too in his capacity for +<i>fellowship</i> with God. For only like can have fellowship with like. It is +only in that in which we are alike that we can have fellowship. These two, +God and man, walking side by side, working together, friendship in spirit; +partnership in service.</p> + +<p>This man is in a <i>garden</i> of trees and bushes, with fruit and flowers and +singing birds, roses with no pricking thorns, soft green with no weeds, +and no poison ivy, for there is no hate. And he is walking with God, +talking familiarly as chosen friend with choicest friend. Together they +work in the completion of creation. God brings His created beings one by +one to man to be catalogued and named, and accepts his decisions. What a +winsome picture. These two, God and a man in His likeness, walking and +working side by side; likeness in being; friendship, fellowship in spirit; +partnership, comradeship in service. And this is God's thought for man!</p> + + + +<h4>Man's Bad Break.</h4> + + +<p>Then come the climax and the crisis. A climax is the climbing to the top +rung of the ladder. A crisis is the meeting place of possible victory and +possible disaster. A single step divides between the two--the +precipice-height, and the canon's yawning gulf.</p> + +<p>It was a climax of opportunity; and a crisis of action. <i>God's</i> climax of +opportunity to man. <i>Man's</i> crisis of action. God made man sovereign in +his power of choice. Now He would go the last step and give him the +opportunity of using that power and so reaching the topmost levels. God +led man to the hill of choice. The man must <i>climb</i> the hill if he would +reach its top.</p> + +<p>Only the use of power gives actual possession of the power. What we do not +use we lose. The pressure of the foot is always necessary to a clear +title. To him that hath possible power shall be given actual power through +use.</p> + +<p>This opportunity was the last love-touch of God in opening up the way into +the fulness of His image. With His ideal for man God went to His limit in +<i>giving</i> the power. He could give the power of choice. Man must <i>use</i> the +power given. Only so could he own what had been given. God could open the +door. Man must step over the door-sill. Action realizes power.</p> + +<p>The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the tree of choice. Obedience +to God was the one thing involved. That simply meant, as it always means, +keeping in warm touch with God. All good absolutely is bound up in +this--<i>obeying God</i>, keeping in warm touch. To obey Him is the very heart +of good. All evil is included in disobeying Him. To disobey, to fail to +obey is the seeded core of all evil.</p> + +<p>Whichever way he chose he would exercise his God-like power of choice. +Whichever way he chose, the knowledge would come. If he chose to obey he +would know good by choosing it, and evil by rejecting it. He knew neither +good nor evil, for he had not yet had the contact of choice. Knowledge +comes only through experience. In choosing not to obey, choosing to +disobey, he would know evil with a bitter intimacy by choosing it. He +would become acquainted with the good which he had shoved ruthlessly away.</p> + +<p>With the opportunity came the temptation: God's opportunity; Satan's +temptation. Satan is ever on the heels of God. Two inclined planes lead +out of every man's path. Two doors open into them side by side. God's door +up, the tempter's door down, and only a door-jamb between. Here the split +hoof can be seen sticking from under the cloak's edge at the very start. +Satan hates the truth. He is afraid of it. Yet he sneaks around the +sheltering corner of what he fears and hates. The sugar coating of his +gall pills he steals from God. The devil bare-faced, standing only on his +own feet, would be instantly booted out at first approach. And right well +he knows it.</p> + +<p>A cunning half lie opens the way to a full-fledged lie, but still coupled +with a half-truth. The suggestion that God was harshly prohibiting +something that was needful leads to the further suggestion that He was +arbitrarily, selfishly holding back the highest thing, the very thing He +was supposed to be giving, that is, likeness to Himself. Eve was getting a +course in suggestion. This was the first lesson. The school seems to be in +session still. The whole purpose is to slander God, to misrepresent Him. +That has been Satan's favorite method ever since. God is not good. He +makes cruel prohibitions. He keeps from us what we should have. It is +passing strange how every one of us has had that dust in his eyes. Some of +us might leave the "had" out of that sentence.</p> + +<p>See how cunningly the truth and the lie are interwoven by this old +past-master in the sooty art of lying. "Your eyes shall be opened, and ye +shall be as God knowing good and evil." It was true because by the use of +this highest power of choice he would become like God, and through +choosing he would know. It is cunningly implied with a sticky, slimy +cunning that, by not eating, that likeness and knowledge would not come. +That was the lie. The choice either way would bring both this element of +likeness to God in the sovereign power of choice, and the knowledge.</p> + +<p>Then came the choice. The step up was a step down: up into the use of his +highest power; down by the use of that power. In that wherein he was most +like God in power, man became most unlike God in character. First the +woman chose: then the man. Satan subtly begins his attack upon the woman. +Because she was the weaker? Certainly not. Because she was the stronger. +Not the leader in action, but the stronger in influence. He is the leader +in action: she in influence. The greater includes the less. Satan is a +master strategist, bold in his cunning. If the citadel can be gotten, all +is won. If he <i>could</i> get the woman he <i>would</i> get the man. She includes +him. She who was included in him now includes him. The last has become +first.</p> + +<p>She was deceived. He was not deceived. The woman chose unwarily for the +supposed good. The man chose with open eyes for the woman's sake. Could +the word gallantry be used? Was it supposed friendship? He would not +abandon her? Yet he proved <i>not her friend</i> that day, in stepping down to +this new low level. Man's habit of giving smoothly spoken words to woman, +while shying sharp-edged stones at her, should in all honesty be stopped. +Man can throw no stones at woman. If the woman failed God that day, the +man failed both God and the woman. If it be true that through her came the +beginning of the world's sin, through her, too, be it gratefully and +reverently remembered, came that which was far greater--the world's +Saviour.</p> + +<p>The choice was made. The act was done. Tremendous act! Bring your +microscope and peer with awe into that single act. No fathoming line can +sound its depth. No measuring rod its height nor breadth. No thought can +pierce its intensity. That reaching arm went around a world. Millenniums +in a moment. A million miles in a step. An ocean in a drop. Volumes in a +word. A race in a woman. A hell of suffering in an act. The depths of woe +in a glance. The first chapter of Romans in Genesis three, six. Sharpest +pain in softest touch. God mistrusted--distrusted. Satan embraced. Sin's +door open. Eden's gate shut.</p> + +<p>Mark keenly the immediate result that came with that intense rapidity +possible only to mental powers. At once they were both conscious of +something that had not entered their thoughts before. To the pure all +things are pure. To the imagination hurt by breaking away from God, the +purest things can bring up suggestions directly opposite. Through the open +door of disobedience came with lightning swiftness the suggestion of +using a pure, holy function of the body in a way and for a purpose not +intended. Making an end of that which was meant to be only a means to a +highest end. Degrading to an animal pleasure that which held in its pure +hallowed power the whole future of the race. There is absolutely no change +save in the inner thought. But what a horrid heredity in that one flash of +the imagination! Every sin lives first in the imagination. The imagination +is sin's brooding and birth-place. An inner picture, a lingering glance, a +wrong desire, an act--that is the story of every sin. The first step was +disobedience. That opened the door. The first suggestion of wrong-doing +that followed hot on the heels of that first step, through that open door, +struck at the very vitals of the race--both its existence and its +character. That first suggested unnatural action, with its whole brood, +has become the commonest and slimiest sin of the race.</p> + +<p>Here, in the beginning, the very thought <i>shocked</i> them. In that lay their +safety. Shame is the recoil of God's image from the touch of sin. Shame is +sin's first checkmate. It is man's vantage for a fresh pull up. There are +only two places where there is no shame: where there is no sin; where sin +is steeped deepest in. The extremes are always jostling elbows. Instantly +the sense of shame suggested a help. A simple bit of clothing was +provided. It was so adjusted as to help most. Clothing is man's badge of +shame. The first clothing was not for the body, but for the mind. Not for +protection, but for concealment, that so the mind might be helped to +forget its evil suggestions. It is one of sin's odd perversions that draws +attention by color and cut to the race's badge of shame. It would seem +strongly suggestive of moral degeneracy, or of bad taste, or, let us say +in charity, of a lapse of historical memory.</p> + +<p>Mark the sad soliloquy of God: "Behold the man has become as one of us: He +has exercised his power of choice." He tenderly refrains from saying, "and +has chosen wrong! so pitiably wrong!" That was plain enough. He would not +rub in the acid truth. He would not make the scar more hideous by pointing +it out. "And now <i>lest</i> he put forth his hand and take of the tree of +life." "<i>Lest!</i>" There is a further danger threatening. In his present +condition he needs guarding for his own sake in the future. +"<i>Lest</i>"--wrong choice limits future action. Sin narrows.</p> + +<p>With man's act of sin came God's act of saving. Satan is ever on the heels +of God to hurt man. But God is ever on the heels of Satan to cushion the +hurt and save the man. It is a nip-and-tuck race with God a head and a +heart in the lead. Something had to be done. Man had started sin in +himself by his choice. The taint of disobedience, rebellion, had been +breathed out into the air. He had gotten out of sorts with his +surroundings. His presence would spoil his own heaven. The stain of his +sin would have been upon his eternal life. The zero of selfishness would +have been the atmosphere of his home. The touch of his unhallowed hand +must be taken away for his own sake. That unhallowed touch <i>has</i> been upon +every function and relationship of life outside those gates. Nothing has +escaped the slimy contact.</p> + +<p>Sin <i>could</i> not be allowed to stay <i>there</i>. Its presence stole heaven away +from heaven. Yet sin had become a part of the man. The man and the wrong +were interwoven. They were inseparable. Sin has such a tenacious, gluey, +sticky touch! Each included the other. <i>It</i> could not be put out without +<i>his</i> being put out. So man had to be driven out for his own sake to rid +his home-spot of sin. The man was driven out that he might come +back--<i>changed</i>. Love drove him out that later it might let him in. The +tree of life was kept <i>from</i> him for a time that it might be kept <i>for</i> +him for an eternity.</p> + +<p>When he had <i>changed his spirit</i>, and <i>changed sides</i> in the fight with +evil started that day, and gotten victory over the spirit now dominant +within himself, those gates would swing again. When the stain of his +choice would be taken out of his fibre it would be his right eagerly to +retrace these forced steps, and the coming back would find more than had +been left. Love has been busy planning the home-coming. The tree of life +has been grown in his absence to a grove of trees. The life has become +life more abundant.</p> + + + +<h4>Outside the Eden Gate.</h4> + + +<p>The story of what took place outside that guarded gate makes clear the +love, the wise farsighted love that showed the man the way out that day. +To tell the story one must use a pen made of the iron that has entered his +own soul, and though the pen be eased with ball point, it scratches and +sticks in the paper for sheer reluctance. And only the tears of the heart +will do for ink.</p> + +<p>That was a costly meal. That first bite must have been a big one. Its +taste is still in the mouth of the race. If that fruit were an apple it +must have been a crab. There has been a bad case of indigestion ever +since. If you think there were no crab-apples in Eden, then the touch of +those thickening lips must have soured it in the eating--man's teeth are +still on edge. The fruit became tough in the chewing. It's not digested +yet. That Garden of Eden must have been on a hill, with lowlands below, +and high hills above, and roads both ways. The man seems to have gotten +into the lowland road, and after a bit, struck some marshes and swamps, +with a good bit of thick gray fog.</p> + +<p>The first result of the break with God was <i>in the man himself</i>. Man has +two doors opening into himself from God--the eye and the ear. Through +these God comes into the man and makes Himself known. Through these comes +all man knows of God. Both have their hinges in the will, the heart. Man +gave both doors a slam shut that day in Eden. Yet they went shut +<i>gradually</i>. That was the God-side of their shutting. He quickly slipped +in an air cushion so the shutting might be softened and delayed, and +meanwhile His presence be appealing to the man.</p> + +<p>Refusing to obey God was equal to hearing without being willing to listen. +It was the same thing as looking with that reluctance that won't see, and +then doesn't see. Hearing and seeing lie deeper than ears and eyes, down +in the purpose, the will, the desire of the heart. Unwillingness dulls, +and then deafens the ears. It blurs, and then blinds the eye. An earnest, +loving purpose gives peculiar keenness to the ears, and opens the eye of +the eye. Ears and eyes are very sensitive organs. If their messages be not +faithfully attended to they sulk and pout and refuse to transmit messages. +It is a remarkable fact that habitual inattention to a sound or sight +makes one practically deaf or blind to it; and that close attention +persisted in makes one's ears and eyes almost abnormally keen and quick. +Love's ears and eyes are proverbially acute.</p> + +<p>One may be so wholly absorbed in something that he absolutely does not see +the thing on which his eyes are turned. He does not hear the sounds that +are plainly coming to his ear because his thought, back of that his heart, +is elsewhere. Hearing, seeing is with the heart back of ears and eyes. God +is spoken of as silent. Yet His silence may be simply our deafness. The +truth is He is speaking all the time, but we are so absorbed that we do +not hear. He is ever looking into our faces with His great, tender, deep +eyes, but we are so wrapped up in something else that the gaze out of our +eyes is vacant to that Face, and with keenest disappointment, so often +repeated, He gets no answering glance.</p> + +<p>Let anybody in doubt about the strict accuracy of this do some +experimenting on himself, either with outer things or regarding God. Let +him obey the inner voice in some particular that may perhaps cut straight +across some fixed habit, and then watch very quietly for the result. It +will come with surprising sureness and quickness. And the reason why is +simple. The man is simply moving back into his native air, and of course +all the powers work better.</p> + +<p>This truth about the nerves of the ears and eyes running down into the +heart is constantly being sounded out in the old Book. A famous bit in +Isaiah puts it very clearly, and becomes a sort of pivot passage of all +others of this sort. That fine-grained, intense-spirited young Hebrew was +caught in the temple one day by a sight of God. That wondrous sight held +him with unyielding grip through all the after years. With the sight came +the voice, and the message for the nation: "Tell these people--you are +continually hearing, but you do not listen, nor take in what you hear. +Your eyes are open, they look, but they do not see." Then the voice said, +"Make their heart <i>fat</i>, and their ears <i>heavy</i>, and their eyes <i>shut</i>."</p> + +<p>That is to say, by continually telling them what they will continually +refuse to hear because it does not suit the habit of their lives, he would +be setting in motion the action that would bring these results. The ears +that won't hear by and by <i>can't</i> hear. The heart that will not love and +obey gets into a state of fatty degeneration. The valves that refuse to +move in loving obedience will get too heavy with fat to move at all. The +fat clogs the hinges. There is the touch of a soft irony in the <i>form</i> of +the message. As though Isaiah's talking would affect their ears, whereas +it is their refusal to hear that stupefies the hearing organ. In +faithfulness God insists on telling them the truth even though He knows +that their refusal to do will make things worse. But then God is never +held back from good by the possible bad that may work out of it.</p> + +<p>When Jesus came, the Jews, to whom His messages to the world were directly +spoken, were in almost the last stages of that sort of thing. So Jesus, +with the fine faithfulness of love blending with the keenest tact, spoke +in language veiled by parable to overcome the intense prejudice against +plainly spoken truth. They were so set against what He had to tell that +the only way to get anything into them at all was so to veil its <i>form</i> as +to befool them into <i>thinking it truer</i>. Toward the close, His keenness, +for which they were no match, joining with the growing keenness of their +hate, made them see at once that the sharp edge of some of those last +parables was turned toward themselves.</p> + +<p>In explaining to His puzzled disciples about this form of teaching, with +a sad irony that reveals both His heart's yearning and His mental +keenness, He uses more than once with variations this famous bit from +Isaiah. He makes the truth stand out more sharply by stating the opposite +of what He desires, making the contrast between His words and His known +desires so strong as not only to make plain the meaning intended, but to +give it a sharper emphasis.</p> + +<p>The result that began with ears and eyes quickly affected the <i>tongue</i>. +That is nature's path. The inner road from ear and eye is straight to the +tongue. The tongue is the index of man's whole being. While through ear +and eye he receives all that ever gets in, through the tongue his whole +being is revealed. Of course his personality reveals itself very much +otherwise. In the carriage of the body. Strikingly so in the look of the +eye. The body itself, especially the face, becomes in time the mould of +the spirit within. Yet the tongue--what is said, how it is said, what is +<i>not</i> said, the tone of voice--the tongue is the index of the spirit.</p> + +<p>There is no stronger indication of mastery over one's powers than in +control of the tongue. When God would break up man's first great ambitious +scheme of a self-centred monopoly on the Shinar plains, He simply touched +his tongue. The first evidence of God's touch in the re-making of man on +that memorable Pentecost day was upon his tongue.</p> + +<p>The effect upon his tongue of the break with God has been radical and +strange. Dumbness, and slowness or thickness of speech alternate with an +unnatural sharpness. Sometimes the spittle has a peculiar oiliness that +results in a certain slipperiness of statement. Sometimes it has a bitter, +poisonous, acid quality that eats its way into the words. There is a queer +backward movement in biting sometimes. Withal a strange looseness of +speech regarding the holiest things, and the most awesome truths, and the +Holy One Himself.</p> + +<p>The moment a man gets a vision of God he is instantly conscious of +something the matter with his tongue. The sight that comes to his eyes, +the sound to his ears makes him painfully self-conscious regarding the +defect in his tongue. Moses found himself slow-tongued. Isaiah felt the +need of the cleansing coal for his tongue.</p> + +<p>But man's whole inner mental process was affected. A peculiar sense of +fear, of dread, is woven inextricably into the very fibre of man's being. +His first reported word after that break was, "I was afraid." That sense of +fear--a horrid, haunting, nightmare thing--has affected all his thinking +and planning and every-day speech. No phrase is oftener on man's tongue +than "I'm afraid." Isaiah's classic utterance about ears and eyes has a +counterpart equally classic from Paul's pen, about the effect of sin upon +man's mental processes. A few lines in the letter to the Ephesian circle +of churches give a sort of bill of details of the mental steps down that +slope from the Eden gate.</p> + +<p>Paul is urging these friends to live <i>no longer</i> as they, in common with +all the races, had been living, in "the vanity of their mind, being +darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because +of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their +hearts; who, being past feeling, gave themselves up to lasciviousness to +make a greedy trade of all uncleanness." Here are seven steps down. The +first five are put in reverse order. Beginning where they have been, he +traces the five steps back to the starting point, and then adds the two +likely to follow with any who persist past this point.</p> + +<p>The start of all sin is in the setting of one's self against God. Choosing +some other way than His. It is called here "hardening of the heart." The +native juices of the heart are drawn away from God and dry up. In this +Book the heart is the seat of both affection and will. It is the pivotal +organ of life. Any trouble there quickly and surely affects the whole +being. Then follows "ignorance." Of course. The heart controls both ear +and eye, the two great channels inward of knowledge. The hardening of the +heart locks both doors. And hard on the heels of that comes "<i>Alienated</i> +from the life of God." That is, <i>cut off,</i> shut out of fellowship and +intimacy. Life is <i>union with God</i>. Through union God's life flows into +us. Union is rooted in knowledge <i>and</i> in sympathy, fellow-feeling, a +common desire and purpose. The man snapping that tying cord cuts himself +off.</p> + +<p>The next step is peculiarly pathetic--"darkened in their understanding." +The man has shut the shutters close, and pulled the shades down tight. Of +course it's dark inside. He is unable to see. First unwilling, now unable. +If the only thing that can be gotten for use as light be <i>darkness</i>, how +intense is that darkness! Then comes the pitiable result of acting as if +darkness were man's native air--"the vanity of the mind." That word vanity +means aimlessness. The mind is still keen, even brilliant, but the guiding +star is shut out, and that keen mind goes whirring aimlessly around. +Sometimes a very earnest aimlessness. The man's on a foggy sea without sun +or star. The compass on board is useless.</p> + +<p>But more pitiable and pathetic yet; indeed utterly laughable if it were +not so terribly serious and pathetic:--this man in the dark proceeds +gravely to decide that this darkness of his own making is a superior sort +of light, and bows low in worship of its maker. He has even been known to +write brilliant essays on the light-giving power of blinding darkness, +with earnest protests at the evil of this thing commonly called light. +Sometimes having carefully cottoned up the shutters that no scrap of sun +light or sun warmth may get in, he strikes a friction match, and sits +warming himself, and eloquently sets forth his own greatness as shown by +the match, <i>friction</i> match. Most of this sort of light and heat is of the +friction sort.</p> + +<p>Then with reluctant hand, one who knows Paul's tender heart can well +believe, the curtain is drawn aside for the last two stages; the grosser, +gutter, animal stages, which, not always by any means, but all too +commonly follow. "Past feeling!" The delicate sense of feeling about right +and purity dulls and goes. The fine inner judgment blunts and leaves. The +shrinking sensitiveness toward the dishonorable and impure loses its edge +and departs. <i>Then</i>--pell mell, like a pack of dogs down a steep hill, +follows the last--"lasciviousness," the purest, holiest things in the +gutter-slime, and then, cold-blooded, greedy trading in these things. +That's the picture painted in shadows of Rembrandt blackness, newly +blackened, of the effect in man himself of turning away from God.</p> + +<p>Now Jesus is the music of God's heart sounding in man's ears anew, that he +may be wooed back the old road to the Eden life. Jesus is the face of God, +close up, looking tenderly, yearningly, into man's face, that his eye may +be caught and held, and his heart be enchained.</p> + + + +<h4>Sin's Brood.</h4> + + +<p>The second great result of that Eden break has been in <i>the growth of +sin</i>. In the seventeenth century after that it was said that man's heart +was a breeding place of thoughts whose pictured forms were bad, only bad, +with no spots of good, nor spurts of good. A thousand years later, Moses +giving the Hebrew tribes the ten commandments, adds a crowd of +particulars, some of them very grewsome, which serve as mirrors to reveal +the common practice of his age. The slant down of those first centuries +has evidently been increasing in its downward pitch.</p> + +<p>More than a thousand years later yet, there is a summary made by Paul that +reveals the stage reached by sin in his day. Probably no one knew the +world of his time, which has proved to be the world's crisis time, as did +Paul the scholar and philosopher of Tarsus. Himself a city man, well bred +and well schooled, a world traveller, with acute, disciplined powers of +observation, and a calm scholarly judgment, he had studied every phase of +life cultured and lowly.</p> + +<p>He pitched upon the great city centres in his active campaigning, and +worked out into the country districts. He was a world-bred man. He knew +the three over-lapping worlds of his time: the Hebrew, with its ideals of +purity and religion; the Greek, with its ideals of culture; and the Roman, +with its ideals of organization and conquest. He is writing from Corinth, +then the centre of Greek life, to Rome, the centre of the world's life. +His letter is the most elaborate of any of his writings preserved to us. +In its beginning he speaks of man, universally, morally, as he had come to +know him. His arraignment is simply terrific in its sweep and detail.</p> + +<p>Let me pause and be measuring the words cautiously and then put this +down:--the description of the latter half of the first chapter of Romans +is a true description of man to-day. At first flush that sounds shocking, +as indeed it is. It seems as if this description can apply only to +degraded savages and to earth's darkest corners. But the history of Paul's +day, and before, and since, and an under view of the social fabric to-day, +only serve to make clear that Paul's description is true for all time, and +around the world.</p> + +<p>There is a cloak of conventionality thrown over the blacker tints of the +picture to-day in advanced Christian lands. It is considered proper to +avoid speaking of certain excesses, or, if speech must be used, modestly +to say "unnamable." And it is a distinct gain for morality that it is so. +Better a standard recognized, even though broken. But commonly the +conditions are not changed. The differences found in different +civilizations to-day are differences only of <i>degree</i>. In the most +advanced cities of Christendom to-day may be found every bit of this +chapter's awful details, <i>but properly cloaked</i>. In European lands the +cloaks are sewed with the legal-stitch, which is considered the proper +finish. In lands where our Christian standards are not recognized the +thing is as open as in this chapter.</p> + +<p>In four short paragraphs containing sixty-six lines in the American +Revision, Paul packs in his terrific philippic. He swings over the ground +four times. Nowhere does he reveal better his own fidelity to truth, with +the fineness of his own spirit. Here, delicacy of expression is rarely +blended with great plainness. No one can fail to understand, and yet that +sense of modesty native to both man and woman is not improperly disturbed, +even though the recital be shocking.</p> + +<p>Here is paragraph one: Man knew God both through nature and by the direct +inner light. But he did not want Him as God. It bothered the way he wanted +to live. The core of all sin is there. All its fruitage grows about that +core. He became vain in his reasonings. He gave himself up to keen, +brilliant speculation. Having cut the cord that bound him to God, +unanchored, uncompassed, on a shoreless, starless sea, he drifts +brilliantly about in the dense gray fog.</p> + +<p>Then he befooled himself further by thinking himself wise. He preferred +somebody else to God. Whom? Himself! Then--birds; then-beasts on all fours +with backbone on a line with the earth, nose and mouth close to the +ground; then--gray-black, slimy, crawling, creeping things. He traded off +the truth of God for a lie; the sweet purity of God for rank impurity. He +dethroned God, and took the seat himself. He bartered God for beasts and +grew like that he preferred. God's gracious restraint is withdrawn when he +gets down to the animal stage. Only here man out-animalled the animals. +The beasts are given points on beastliness. The life he chose to live held +down by the throat the truth he knew so well. That's the first summary.</p> + +<p>The next two paragraphs are devoted to that particular sort of unnatural +sin first suggested to man after his disobedience, and which in all time +and all lands has been and is the worst, the most unnatural, the most +degrading, and the most common. It came first in the imagination. It came +early in the history of actual sin. It is put first by Paul in his +arraignment here. He gives it chief place by position and by particularity +of description. First was the using of a pure, natural function to gratify +unnatural desires. Then with strange cunning and lustful ingenuity +changing the natural functions to uses not in the plan of nature. Let it +all be said in lowest, softest voice, so sadly awful is the recital. Yet +let that soft voice be very distinct, that the truth may be known. Then +lower down yet the commercializing of such things. Unconcerned barter and +trade in man's holy, most potent function. Putting highest price on most +ingenious impurity.</p> + +<p>Then follows the longest of these paragraphs running up and down the grimy +gamut of sin. Beginning with <i>all</i> unrighteousness, he goes on to specify +depravity, greedy covetousness, maliciousness. Oozing out of every pore +there are envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. Men are whisperers, +backbiters, God-haters, and self-lovers, in that they are insolent, +haughty, boastful. They are inventors of evil things, without +understanding, breakers of faith, without natural affection, ruthlessly +merciless.</p> + +<p>The climax is reached in this, that though they <i>know</i> God, and what He +has set as the right rule of life, they not only <i>do</i> these things named, +but they delight in the fellowship of those who habitually practise them. +The stage of impulsiveness is wholly gone. They have settled down to this +as the deliberate choice and habit of life. Man is still a <i>king</i>, but all +bemired. He is the image and glory of God, but how shrivelled and +withered; obscured, all overgrown with ugly poison vines.</p> + +<p>Let it be remembered at once that this is a <i>composite</i> picture of the +race. Many different sorts of men must be put together to get such a view. +Sin works out differently in different persons. A man's activities take on +the tinge of his personality. So sin in a man takes on the color and tone +of his individuality.</p> + +<p>One man has the inner disposition against God, accompanied by no excesses +at all. These things disgust him. He is refined in his tastes, perhaps +scholarly and intellectual in his thinking. That inner disposition may be +a sort of refined ignoring of God either defiant or indifferent. In +another, the animal nature swings to the front, stronger perhaps by +heredity, and, yielded to, it runs to the excess of riot. Then there is +the man with the strange yellow fever, whose love for the bright-colored +precious metal burns in his blood and controls every impulse and purpose. +And the man with intense love of power, of controlling men and things for +the sake of the immense power involved, with himself as the centre of all.</p> + +<p>There is every imaginable degree of each of these, and every sort of +combination among them. The lines cross and re-cross at every possible +angle in various persons. A man is apt to get money-drunk then +society-drunk (with a special definition for the word society in this +connection), then lust-drunk. Or, he may swing direct from +money-intoxication into power-intoxication. Please notice keenly that each +of these four grows up out of a perfectly normal, natural desire. Sin +always follows nature's grooves. There is nothing wrong in itself. The sin +is in the wrong motive underneath, or the wrong relationship round about +an act. Or, it is in excess, exaggeration, pushing an act out of its true +proportion. Exaggeration floods the stream out of its channel. Wrong +motive or wrong relationship sends a bad stream into a good channel.</p> + +<p>But sift down under the surface and always is found the same thing. The +upper growth is varied by what it finds on the surface to mingle with, but +the sub-stuff is ever the same. The root always is self. The whole seed of +sin is in preferring one's own way to God's way; one's self to God. The +stream of life is turned the wrong way. It is turned in. Its true +direction is up. The true centre of gravity for man is not downward, nor +inward, but upward and outward.</p> + + + +<h4>God's Treatment of Sin.</h4> + + +<p>God's treatment of sin lets in a flood of light on the sort of thing it +is. Three times over in this summary Paul says that God "<i>gave them up.</i>" +As they cast out all acknowledgment of God, He gave them up to an +<i>outcast</i> mind. When they turned God out-of-doors, God left them indoors +to themselves. It was the worst thing He could do, and the best. Worst--to +be left alone with sin. Best, because the sin would get so vile that the +man in God's image would want to turn it out, and get God back. Man never +turns from sin until he feels its vileness to the sickening point. When +things get to the acute stage, and a sharp crisis is on, then as a rule +there will be an eager turning to the One who can cleanse and make over +new; but usually not until then.</p> + +<p>Sin has a terrific gait. Give it a loose rein and man will get winded and +ready to drop. Only then is he ready to drop it. Sin can't be patched up +or mended. Nursing only helps it to its feet for a fresh start. The whole +trouble is in the nature of the thing. The heart pumps the hot blood of +rebellion. Its lungs can breathe only self-willed air. The worst +punishment of sin is that left alone it breeds more sin, and worse sin. +The worst of sin is in its brood. It is very prolific. Every sin is a +seed-sin. The breeding process gets the sort more refined in its +coarseness.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "This is the very curse of evil deed,</div> +<div class="line"> That of new sin it becomes the seed."<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>And the plain statements of the Book, and the inevitable working of man's +nature, reveal all the bad results of sin intensifying indefinitely in +the after-life. Jesus is God letting sin do its worst, upon Himself, that +man might see its utter, stubborn damnableness, and eagerly turn from it, +and back to Him.</p> + + + +<h4>A Bright Gleam of Light.</h4> + + +<p>Yet be it keenly marked, there is a very bright gleam of light across this +dark picture. In going over the story of sin with its terrific results now +and afterward, one needs to be very tender, for he is talking about +<i>men</i>--his <i>brothers</i>. And to be very careful not to say things that are +not so. Some good, earnest people have been thinking that the whole race +except a small minority were given over to eternal misery. The vast +majority of men has never heard the name of Jesus. And some very godly +people have seemed to think that these are lost forever.</p> + +<p>Yet the old Book of God speaks very plainly here. Its meaning can be +gotten without any twisting of words. Neither the Jewish nation nor the +Christian Church can be regarded as favorites of God. God has no favorites +for salvation. The Jewish nation was chosen for <i>service</i>' sake. Through +it there came a special after-revelation of God. Through it came the +world's new Man. The Church is the repository of God's truth to-day, with +its window panes not always quite clear. Its great mission is to tell the +whole race of Jesus. Both were chosen for service.</p> + +<p>Every nation knew God directly at the first. And be it said thoughtfully, +every man has enough of revelation and of inner light to lead him back to +God. A man's choice in this life is his choice always. Any student of the +ordinary working of man's mind can certify that. Whatever sort of being a +man deliberately, persistently chooses to be here and now, he will be +always. The only change possible in the after-life will be in the degree. +Never in the sort.</p> + +<p>The Gospels speak of <i>believing on Jesus</i>, and of the bad results for +those who decline or refuse to have anything to do with Him. Of course it +is speaking of those who have heard of Him. There can be no believing on +Jesus without hearing, and of course in simple fairness no condemning on +any such grounds. The gospel message is wholly concerned with those who +hear.</p> + +<p>But there is clear and plain teaching about the great outside majority of +past generations and of our own who have never heard. It was a member of +both Jewish nation and Christian Church, whose tongue, touched by the +Spirit of God, said, "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation +he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him." That +is a simple standard, yet a searching one. Anybody, anywhere, with a truly +reverential thought upward, and a controlling purpose to be right in his +life, will find the door swinging wide. No other badges or tickets +required. This would include that remarkable woman of India, Chundra +Lelah,<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> all those weary years before the simple story of Jesus brought +its flood of light and peace, and all of her innumerable class.</p> + +<p>Paul puts it as simply and a little more fully in the letter to the +Romans, that careful treatise which sums up with marvellous fulness and +brevity the gospel he preached to the world. In chapter two, he says, "to +them who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and +incorruption (He will give) eternal life." Note that in his review thus +far he has not yet gotten to Jesus the Saviour.</p> + +<p>These people of whom he is now speaking have never heard of Jesus. They +are the great majority. Mark keenly the simple description of them. It is +a description, not of an achievement, but of a purpose. The absorbing aim +in their lives is <i>seeking upward</i>. The seeking controls the life. The +mastering spirit of these seekers is <i>patience, steadfastness</i>. They are +seeking for the highest thing. They are doing what seems to them to be +right, while seeking. They are doing right <i>patiently</i>.</p> + +<p>Patience! What a world of conflicting experiences in a word! +Misunderstandings, breaks, slips, stumblings, failures, falls; but in all, +through all, <i>patience</i>, steadfastness. Taking a fresh hold at every turn. +And the gripping fingers ever learning a new tenacity. Pulling steadily up +a steep mountain side, in a blazing hot sun, blinded by dust, struck by +loosened rocks above rolling down, but--patiently, steadily, with +dust-blinded eyes, tugging <i>up</i>. To such is given the heart's +desire--eternal life. Ah! God judges a man by his <i>direction</i>, by the set +of his face. He may not be far up, but his face is turned up. His heels +show their backs. His toes point toward the top. That reveals the purpose, +the desire of the man inside. His choice is to be <i>up</i>. And it is choice +that makes character as well as revealing it. And the one thing that +concerns God is the character as revealed in the purpose.</p> + +<p>There is a simple, pathetic story from mission lands, variously told, and +well vouched for, of a missionary pausing long enough in a village to tell +the story of Jesus to the crowd that gathered, and then pushing on. This +was the first visit of a missionary to this place and so the first news of +Jesus. The crowd listened eagerly with various results. There was one +listener, an old man, held in repute for his wisdom, who at once accepted +the missionary's story, and announced his acceptance of Jesus. His +neighbors expressed their surprise at his prompt acceptance of such a new +thing. The old man's quiet answer in effect was this: "Oh, I have long +trusted this Jesus, but I never knew His name before." There was no change +of purpose with this man, but, in the story of Jesus, the burst of light +that brought unspeakable peace as he kept on in his upward tug.</p> + +<p>Yet all this will not hold back from glad sacrifice, from free giving, +from eager going to foreign mission lands a single man or woman who has +been caught by Jesus' Spirit. <i>The Master said, "Go ye</i>." That's enough. +For the largest wealth that may be given, for the keenest sacrifice that +may be endured, for the strongest life that may be devoted--that is quite +enough. And if more were needed--then to go, to give, to sacrifice for the +sake of helping our struggling brothers yonder know Jesus, and His +wondrous sacrifice and His <i>great peace</i>. To make them conscious of the +disgustingness of sin, to bring to them <i>a vision of Jesus' face</i> to +allure, and enchain, to give a man's will an earnest boost, when he +<i>-would</i> choose, but cannot seem to for the suction of sin, inherited and +ever growing upon his choosing powers. God sent <i>His</i> best. Jesus +sacrificed His all in going. We'll gladly follow in such a train. Jesus is +God sending His best, sacrificing His dearest, giving His most, <i>going +Himself</i> to get men started up the hill out of the bog.</p> + + + +<h4>The Broken Tryst.</h4> + + +<p>Man's break back in Eden was very hard on God. That evening early, in the +twilight, God came walking in the garden to have the usual talk with His +friend. He came to keep tryst. It was the usual trysting place and +trysting hour, and God had the trysting spirit. We may think He came early +for this bit of fellowship. He was prompt. Nothing would be allowed to +disturb this appointment. But God was disappointed. It was His first +disappointment. The first one to be disappointed on this earth was God. +Adam had always met Him before. We may easily think met Him eagerly, +jubilantly, with glad, free, open face and clinging hands.</p> + +<p>But the man was not there this time. He failed God. He broke tryst. He +stayed away. Indeed he had gone away. God didn't fail. He was there. The +man failed. They had a long distance talk. God called Adam. He was not +content to come to the trysting place. He must find the missing tryster. +Some folk would make God a sort of hard and dry keeper of His word: A sort +of trim syllogism, dry as punk. Some seem to think Him to be as they seem +to be. How our poor God has been slandered by His supposed defenders! God +was not satisfied to keep the appointment. <i>He wanted the man.</i> He +hungered for His friend, upon whom He had imprinted His own image. His +heart was hungry for fellowship. He wanted the comfort of a bit of talk. +So He starts at once eagerly, insistently to find the man.</p> + +<p>That voice of God spoke out, tender, gentle, plaintive, pleading. You can +just hear the soft, very soft woodsman's cry, "Hello-alo, hello, Adam, +A-a-dam--here I am--waiting for you--I've kept my tryst--where are +<i>you</i>?--hello-o--hello--<i>where</i>--are--you?" The voice that spoke worlds +into being, that brought life and beauty to all creation, that brought +instant reverence and adoration from myriads of the upper world, that +voice now speaks to one, two: two who were one. All the heart of God, all +the power of God, in the soft voice talking to one man. God has always +been after the one man, and still is.</p> + +<p>And the breezes hushed to hear that voice with its new pleading tone. The +birds stilled their song for this new music in minor mellowing tone. +Silence for a moment, the breezes hushed, the birds stilled, the creation +near by held its breath, God held <i>His heart still</i>, that He might catch +the first response to its cry. The twilight of that day had a pathetic +sight. It saw a broken tryst; a lonely God; words of fellowship unspoken. +A man and woman hiding. Skulking behind trees. Trees served a new purpose +that evening, not a good purpose. They never were meant to hide behind. +Sin perverts the use of all things.</p> + +<p>All these weary years God has been standing wherever men are: standing, +waiting, calling man back to his tryst. Among the trees, in the crowded +city of man's making, He is ever calling, and eagerly, wondrously, helping +every one who answers. He is so near that a reaching hand always touches +Him. The voice of the heart never misses His ear. But His love and grief +shine out most on that bit of a hill, outside a city wall, on the east +coast of the middle-of-the-earth sea. That is earth's tallest hill. It can +be seen farthest away of any. Jesus up on that hill is God calling man +back to his broken tryst.</p> + + + +<h4>God's Wooing.</h4> + + +<p>God seems to have fairly outdone Himself to get man to turn toward the old +trysting place. For when a man will turn around enough to get even a +glimpse of that God-Face, and a whisper of that God-Voice, he can +withstand no longer.</p> + +<p>God has taxed all the ingenuity of His love to let man know about Himself. +He revealed Himself directly to the whole race at the start. He has in +every generation, and in every clime, on every hilltop and valley, in +every village and crowded city, been revealing Himself to the heart of +every man. There cannot be found one anywhere who has not heard the quiet +inner voice drawing up, and away from wrong.</p> + +<p>In this world of wondrous beauty God is speaking. The glory-telling +heavens, the winsome coloring of trees and all growing things, the soft +round hills, the sublime mountains, the sea with its ever-changing mood +but never-changing beneficence upon the life of the whole earth, the great +blue and gray above, the soothing green below, the brighter colors in +their artistic proportion, the wondrous blendings--surely every bush and +other green thing, every bright twinkler in the blue, everything is aflame +with the presence that burns but in great love consumes not. His eyes are +indeed badly bothered that cannot see; his ears in queer fix that do not +hear. Yet sometimes the empty shoes seem few enough. But they are ever +increasing, and will yet more and more, by retail method, with wholesale +result.</p> + +<p>But God comes closer yet in His wooing. The web of life's daily run, with +its strange mixing and blending, shadings and tints, is of His weaving. +He sits at life's loom ever watching and weaving. Were He but recognized +oftener and His hand allowed to guide the skein, how different the +weaving!</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Children of yesterday,</div> +<div class="line"> Heirs of to-morrow,</div> +<div class="line"> What are you weaving--</div> +<div class="line"> Labor and sorrow?</div> +<div class="line"> Look to your looms again;</div> +<div class="line"> Faster and faster</div> +<div class="line"> Fly the great shuttles</div> +<div class="line"> Prepared by the Master.</div> +<div class="line"> <i>Life's in the loom</i>,</div> +<div class="line"> <i>Room for it</i>--<i>room</i>!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Children of yesterday,</div> +<div class="line"> Heirs of to-morrow,</div> +<div class="line"> Lighten the labor</div> +<div class="line"> And sweeten the sorrow:</div> +<div class="line"> Now--while the shuttles fly</div> +<div class="line"> Faster and faster,</div> +<div class="line"> Up and be at it--</div> +<div class="line"> At work <i>with</i> the Master.</div> +<div class="line"> <i>He stands at your loom</i>,</div> +<div class="line"> <i>Room for Him</i>--<i>room</i>!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Children of yesterday,</div> +<div class="line"> Heirs of to-morrow,</div> +<div class="line"> Look at your fabric</div> +<div class="line"> Of labor and sorrow.</div> +<div class="line"> Seamy and dark</div> +<div class="line"> With despair and disaster,</div> +<div class="line"> Turn it--and lo,</div> +<div class="line"> The design of the Master.</div> +<div class="line"> <i>The Lord's at the loom</i>,</div> +<div class="line"> <i>Room for Him--room</i>."<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>When men's eyes seemed unable to see clearly these revelations of +Himself, God picked out a small tribe, and through long, patient, +painstaking discipline, gave to it, for the whole world, a special +revelation of Himself. In it, in the Book which preserves its records, in +the Man who came through it, God came nearer yet.</p> + +<p>In Jesus, God told out His greatness most, and His love most tenderly. Man +is the fairest flower of earth's creation. It was love's fine touch that +to him God should reveal Himself best and most in the fairest flower of +the eternal creation. Only man could fully appreciate Jesus, God's Man, +and man's Brother.</p> + +<p>But Jesus was known only to one generation--His own generation--to one +narrow strip of country, one peculiarly exclusive tribe, the very small +majority of all to whom He had come. So there came to be a Book that all +after-generations might know Him too. We of later generations know <i>of</i> +Jesus through the Book, in some shape or other, before we can come to know +Himself direct. And so we prize the Book above all others. Not for the +Book's sake, at all, of course, but because through it we come to know +Jesus. With loving reverence we handle it, for it tells of Him, our +God-brother.</p> + +<p>Some learned folk have been much taken up with the make-up of the Book, +its paper and type, and punctuation, and binding. And they have done good +service in clearing away a lot of dust and cobwebs that had been gathering +on it for a long time. But we plain folk, absorbed in getting things +done, do not need to wait on their conclusions. If in those pages we have +found Jesus, and God in Jesus, the Book has fulfilled its mission to us.</p> + +<p>To all directly, in nature's voice, and in our common daily life; to a +nation chosen for the special purpose, and through that nation and its +books; through Jesus to those who knew Him, and, by a Book telling of Him, +to all following, God came, <i>comes</i> in His wooing, and looked, <i>looks</i> +tenderly into man's face. Each of these paths leads straight to God, and +each comes to include the others.</p> + +<p>But chiefly in Jesus God came. Jesus is God going out in the cold black +night, over the mountains, down the ravines and gullies, eagerly hunting +for His lost man, getting hands, and face, and more, torn on the brambly +thorn bushes, and losing His life, in the darkness, on a tree thrust in +His path, but saving the man.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h3>The Plan for Jesus' Coming</h3> + + + +<h4>The Image of God.</h4> + + +<p>Man is God's darling--the king and crown of creation. The whole creation +was made for him to develop and rule over and enjoy. He is in a class by +himself. When he made his bad break there was just one thing left to do. +God must get a new leader for His man to lead him back into all the +original plan for himself. Of the whole earth man stood next to God +Himself. God could not find that leader lower down. So He went higher. +Jesus is God giving the race a new Leader who would withstand the lure of +temptation and realize the ambition of God's heart for His darling.</p> + +<p>The man was made in the image of God, for self-mastery, and through +self-mastery for dominion over all of God's creation. That was the plan +for the man. That, too, is the plan for the new Man. There is only one +place to go to find God's plan for the coming One. That is in the Hebrew +half of the Bible. One can hardly believe, unless he has been through the +thing, how hard it is to get out of the Old Testament its vision of the +coming One without any coloring from the New getting into his eyes.</p> + +<p>We have been reading the Old Testament <i>through</i> the events of the New +for so long that it gives a severe mental wrench to try to do anything +else. Yet only so, be it sharply marked, can the plan for the coming of +Jesus be gotten, and, further, only so can Jesus be understood. One must +attempt to do just that to understand at all fairly what a reverent Hebrew +in prophetic times expected; what such earnest Hebrews as Simeon and Anna +were looking for.</p> + +<p>I have tried to make a faithful effort to shut severely out of view the +familiar facts of the gospel story for my own sake, to try to understand +God's plan as it stood before there was a gospel story.</p> + +<p>This old Hebrew picture is so full of details that are found in the +reality that one who has not actually gone studiously over the Old +separately will be very likely to think that the New Testament details are +being <i>read into</i> the Old. If that be so, it is urgently requested that +such an opinion be held off until the old Hebrew pages have been carefully +examined as outlined in the study notes, that you may get the refreshment +of a great surprise.</p> + +<p>It must be kept keenly in mind that there is a difference between God's +plan and that which He knows ahead will occur. Sovereignty does not mean +that everything God plans comes to pass. Nor that everything that comes to +pass is God's plan. Clearly it has not been so. It <i>does</i> mean that +through very much that is utterly contrary to His plan He works out, in +the long run, His great purpose. He works His own purpose out of a tough +tangled network of contrary purposes; but in doing it never infringes upon +man's liberty of action. He yields and bends, and, with a patience beyond +our comprehension, waits, that in the end He may win <i>through</i> our +consent. And so not only is His purpose saved, but man is saved and +character is made in the process.</p> + +<p>The plan is a detail of the purpose. There is one unfailing purpose +through continual breakings of the plan. God's purpose remains unchanging +through all changes. Yet here not only is His purpose unbroken, but His +plan is to work out in the end unbroken too, though suffering a very +serious break midway.</p> + +<p>The plan goes back to the first broken plan. There was dominion or +kingship of the earth by a masterful man bearing the image and imprint of +God. All this was lost. Through loss of contact with God came the blurring +of the image and the loss of self-mastery. Through loss of these came loss +of dominion. These are to be restored--all three. This is the key to the +plan for the coming of Jesus. A universal dominion, under the lead of a +Master-Man, in God's image, and through these a restoration of blessing to +all the earth of men. This is the one continuous theme of the old Hebrew +writings. The emphasis swings now to one aspect, now to another, but +through all the one thought is a king, a world-wide kingdom bringing +blessing to all creation.</p> + +<p>But if Jesus was to lead man back He must first get alongside, close up, +on the same level. This was the toughest part of the whole thing. The +hardest part in saving a man is getting the man's consent to be saved. +There is no task tougher than trying to help a man who thinks he doesn't +need help, even though his need may be extreme. You may throw a blanket +over a horse's head and get it out of a burning stable or barn; or a lasso +over a bull's head to get it where you want, but man cannot be handled +that way. He must be <i>led</i>. The tether that draws must be fastened inside, +his <i>will</i>. He must be lifted from inside. That is a bit of the God-image +in him. And so God's most difficult task was getting <i>inside the man</i> that +had shut Him out.</p> + + + +<h4>Fastening a Tether Inside.</h4> + + +<p>And a long time it took. That it took so long, measured by the calendar, +suggests how great was the resistance to be overcome. A long round-about +road it does seem that God took. Yet it was the shortest. The circle route +is always the shortest. It is nature's way. Nature always follows the line +of least resistance. The eagle, descending, comes in circles, the line of +least resistance. Water running out of a bowl through the hole in the +bottom follows the circuitous route--the easiest.</p> + +<p>God's longest way around was the shortest way into man's heart. Standards +had to be changed. New standards made. Yet in making a standard there must +be a starting point. God's bother was to get a starting point. When man +was too impure in his ingrained ideas to receive any idea of what purity +meant, things were in bad shape. When he was grubbing content in the +gutter, how was he ever to be gotten up to the highlands, when you +couldn't even lift his eyes over the curbstone? All the prohibitions of +the Mosaic code are but faithful mirrors of man's condition. A wholly new +standard had to be set up. That was God's task. It must be set up +<i>through</i> men if they were to be attracted to it. So God started on His +longest-way-around-shortest road into man's heart.</p> + +<p>A man is chosen. Through this man, by the slow processes of generations, a +nation is grown. Yet a nation only in numbers at first; in no other sense; +a mob of men. Then this mob is worked upon. They are led through +experiences that will make them soft to new impressions. Then slowly, +laboriously, by child-training methods, the new standard is brought to +them. Yet after centuries the best attained is only that their tenacious +fingers have hold of a <i>form</i>, not yet the spirit. Yet this is an immense +gain.</p> + +<p>By and by this is the pedigree: A man, a family, tribes, a nation, a +strong nation, a broken nation, a literature, ragged remnants of a nation, +an ideal the like of which could not be found anywhere on earth, and a +<i>book</i> embodying that ideal written as with acid-point in metal, as with +sharpest chisel in hardest stone.</p> + +<p>At last a start was made. God had gotten a hook inside man's will to +which He could tie His tether, and <i>draw</i>, lovingly, tenderly, +tenaciously, persistently, <i>draw</i> up out of the mire, toward the +highlands, toward Himself.</p> + + + +<h4>The First Touches on the Canvas.</h4> + + +<p>This old Hebrew picture is found to be a mosaic made up of bits gathered +here and there, scattered throughout the Book. Some of the bits are of +very quiet sober colors found in obscure corners. Others are bright. When +brought together all blend into one with wondrous, fine beauty. The first +bit is of grave hue. It comes at the very beginning. There is to be sharp +enmity, then a crisis, resulting in a fatal wound for the head of evil, +with scars for the victor.</p> + +<p>After this earliest general statement there are three distinct groups or +periods of prediction regarding the coming One. During the making of the +nation, during its high tide of strength and glory under David and his +son, during the time of its going to pieces. As the national glory is +departing, the vision takes on its most glorious coloring. The first of +these is during the making of the nation. As the man who is to be father +of the chosen family is called away from his kinfolk to a preparatory +isolation, he is cheered with the promise that his relationship is to be a +relationship of leadership and of great blessing <i>to the whole earth</i>. +This is repeated to his son and to his grandson, as each in turn becomes +head of the family. As his grandson, the father of the twelve men whose +names become the tribe names, is passing away he prophetically sees the +coming leadership narrowed to Judah, through whom the great Leader is to +come.</p> + +<p>Later yet, in a story of divination and superstition characteristic of the +time, a strange prophet is hired by an enemy to pronounce a curse upon the +new nation. This diviner is taken possession of by the Spirit of God, and +forced to utter what is clearly against his own mercenary desires. He sees +a coming One, in the future, who is to smite Israel's enemies and rule +victoriously.</p> + +<p>During the last days of Moses that man, great to the whole race, speaks a +word that sinks in deep. In his good-bye message he says there is some One +coming after him, who will be to them as he had been, one of their own +kin, a deliverer, king, lawgiver, a wise, patient, tender judge and +teacher. The nation never forgot that word. When John the Baptist came, +they asked, "Art thou <i>the</i> prophet?"</p> + +<p>The second group of predictions is found during the nation's strength and +glory. To David comes the promise that the royal house he has founded is +to be <i>forever</i>, in contrast with Saul's, even though his successors may +fail to keep faith with God. It is most striking to note how much this +meant to David. He accepts it as meaning that the nation's Messiah and the +world's King is to be of his own blood. "Thou hast spoken also of thy +servant's house for a great while to come." Then follows this very +significant sentence: "And this is (or, must be) the law of <i>the man</i> +(or, <i>the</i> Adam)." This promise must refer to the plan of God concerning +the woman's seed, <i>the</i> man, <i>the Adam.</i></p> + +<p>At the close, when the tether of life is slipping its hold, this vision of +the coming greater Heir promised by God evidently fills his eye. He says:</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "<i>There shall lie One</i> that ruleth over men;</div> +<div class="line"> A righteous One, that ruleth in the fear of God.</div> +<div class="line"> And it shall be then as the light of the morning,</div> +<div class="line"> When the sun ariseth,</div> +<div class="line"> A morning without clouds,</div> +<div class="line"> The tender grass springing out of the earth through + clear shining after rain."</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Verily, my own house has not been so with God;</div> +<div class="line"> Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant,</div> +<div class="line"> Ordered in all things and sure.</div> +<div class="line"> For this covenant is now all my comfort and all my desire,</div> +<div class="line"> Although he has not yet brought it to pass."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>This seems to be the setting of those psalms of his referring to the +coming One. It was to be expected that his poetical fire would burn with +such a promise and conception. In the Second Psalm he sees this coming +Heir enthroned as God's own Son, and reigning supremely over the whole +earth despite the united opposition of enemies. In the One Hundred and +Tenth Psalm this Heir is sharing rule at God's right hand while waiting +the subduing of all enemies. He is to be divine, a king, and more, a +<i>priest</i>-king. Surrounded by a nation of volunteers full of youthful vigor +He will gain a decisive victory over the head of the allied enemies, and +yet be Himself undisturbed in the continual freshness of His vigor. And +all this rests upon the unchanging oath of Jehovah.</p> + +<p>David's immediate heir found his father's pen, and in the Seventy-second +Psalm repeats, with his own variations, his father's vision of the coming +greater Heir. While there is repetition of the kingdom being world-wide +and unending, with all nations in subjection, the chief emphasis is put +upon the blessing to that great majority--the poor. They are to be freed +from all oppression, to have full justice done them, with plenty of food +to eat, and increased length of life.</p> + +<p>That David's expectation had thoroughly permeated his circle is shown in +the joyous Forty-fifth Psalm, written by one of the court musicians. It +addresses the coming One as more than human, having great beauty and +graciousness, reigning in righteousness, victoriously, with a queen of +great beauty, and a princely posterity for unending generations.</p> + + + +<h4>A Full-length Picture in Colors.</h4> + + +<p>These are but the beginnings. It is in the prophetic books, the third of +the groups, that the full picture with its brightest coloring is found. +The picture is not only winsome beyond all comparison and glorious, but +stupendous in its conception and its sweep. It is most notable that, as +the flood-tide of the nation's prosperity ebbs from its highest mark, the +vision to the prophetic eye of a coming glory grows steadily in +brightness and in distinctness. As the great kings go, the great prophets +come. It is to them we must turn for the full-length picture.</p> + +<p>The one <i>continuous</i> subject of the prophets is the coming King and +kingdom and attendant events. Immediate historical events furnish the +setting, but with a continual swinging to the coming future greatness. The +yellow glory light of the coming day is never out of the prophetic sky. +Its reflection is never out of the prophetic eye. Jeremiah is the one most +absorbed in the boiling of the political pot of his own strenuous time, +but even he at times lifts his head and gets such glimpses of the coming +glory as make him mix some rose tincture with the jet black ink he uses.</p> + +<p>The common thread running through the fabric of the prophetic books clear +from Isaiah to Malachi is the phrase "in that day." Sometimes it thickens +into "the day of the Lord," "the great day of the Lord," "Jehovah hath a +great day," "at that time." About this thread is woven in turn the whole +series of stirring scenes and events that are to mark the coming time. +Sometimes it is of local application; most times of the future time, and a +few times the meaning slides from one to the other, touching both.</p> + +<p>Over all of these pages is the shadow of <i>Somebody</i> coming down the aisle +of the ages, who is to be the world's Master. The figure of a man, large +to gigantic size, majestic, yet kindly as well as kingly, looms out +through these lines before the reader's face. The old idea of God Himself +dwelling in the midst of the people, sharing their life, made familiar by +Eden, by the flame-tipped mount and the glory-filled tent, comes out +again. For this coming One is said to be God Himself. But more than that +He is to be a man, and a <i>son</i> of man; man bred of man. The blending of +the two, God and man, is pointed to in the unprecedented thing of a pure +virgin birth for this one. God and a pure maiden join themselves in His +coming. He is to be of native Hebrew stock, in direct descent from the +great David, and born in David's native village. Of course He is to be a +king as was David, but unlike that ancestor, to be not only a king, but a +priest, and a preacher and teacher.</p> + +<p>The <i>kingdom</i> he will set up will be like Himself in its blending of the +human and divine. Its origin is not human, but divine. The <i>capital</i> is to +be Zion or Jerusalem. It will be marked by the glorious presence of God +Himself visibly present to all eyes. The <i>characteristics</i> of the kingdom +are of peculiar attractiveness, at any time, to any people of this poor +old blood-stained, gun-ploughed battle-field of an earth. The stronger +traits that men commonly think of as desirable are combined with traits +that have been reckoned by men of all generations as absurdly, +unpractically idealistic.</p> + +<p>There will be vengeance upon all enemies, who have been using Israel as a +common football, and great victory. Yet, strangely, these will be gotten +<i>without the use of violent force</i>, and will be followed by great peace. +The kingdom is to be established in loving-kindness and marked to an +unparalleled degree by a sense of right and justice to all. This feature +is emphasized over and over again, with refreshing frequency to those so +eager for such a revolutionary change in their affairs. Absolute gentle +fairness and impartiality will decide all difficulties arising. Even the +most friendless and the most obnoxious thing will be fairly judged.</p> + +<p>That great universal majority, <i>the poor</i>, will be especially guarded and +cared for. There will be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no +unemployed, begging for a chance to earn a dry crust, and no workers +fighting for a fair share of the fruit of their sweat-wet toil. But there +are tenderer touches yet upon this canvas. Broken hearts will be healed +up, prison doors unhung, broken family circles complete again. It is to be +a time of great rejoicing by the common people. Yet all this will be +brought about, not immediately, but gradually, following the natural law +of growth; though the beginning will be marked by a great crisis, coming +suddenly.</p> + +<p>The effect upon Israel <i>nationally</i> is to be tremendous, sweepingly +reversing the conditions under which most of these predictions are made. +Israel is to become a Spirit-baptized nation, wholly swayed by the Spirit +of God, and that gracious sway never to be withdrawn. All judgments for +her sins are removed and all impurity thoroughly cleansed away. Possession +of their own land is assured. And the capital city is to become a <i>holy</i> +place from which, in common with the whole land, all impurity has been +cleansed away. All weakness and disability are gone, and full freedom from +the exactions of her former enemies to be enjoyed. Not only is Israel to +be at peace with all nations, but, far more, is to have the <i>leadership</i> +of the nations of the earth, and leadership of the highest sort--in a +world-wide spiritual movement, in the day when the Spirit of God is to be +poured out upon all flesh.</p> + +<p>This leadership is to be a glorious and absolute supremacy among all the +nations of the earth. And yet this is not to be by man's method of +conquest, but of their own earnest accord all nations will come a-running +eagerly, voluntarily, with all their wealth and resources for the +upbuilding and service of Israel. In that time the Hebrew capital +Jerusalem will likewise be the capital of the earth.</p> + +<p>No less radical and sweeping will be the changes in Israel <i>personally</i>, +individually. The people are to be <i>made over new within</i>. The modern word +for this sort of thing is regeneration. The old-fashioned word is a <i>new +heart--a new spirit</i>. The change is to be at the <i>core</i>; a change of the +sort. With this will come a marked spirit of devotion to God, and a +peculiar open-mindedness to the truth. There will be an absence of all +sickness and a decided increase in length of life and great increase in +numbers. There will be no longer any disappointment in plans, and the +<i>sense</i> of <i>slavish fear</i>, which is universal, not only with all the +race, but through all time, will be utterly absent. Israel is to be a +nation of persons with thrilled hearts and radiant faces.</p> + + + +<h4>Back to Eden.</h4> + + +<p>The effect upon <i>all the nations</i> of the earth is a large part of the +background of the picture. Through Israel's advancement under the new +order, every other nation is to come back to God. The outpouring of the +Spirit upon Israel is to be followed by an outpouring upon <i>all</i> flesh. +There are the two outpourings of God's Spirit in these old prophetic +pages. This will be followed by a universal, voluntary coming to Israel +for religious instruction. She becomes the teacher of the nations +regarding God, until by and by the whole earth shall be filled with the +knowledge of the only God. Her influence upon them for good will be as the +heavy fertilizing eastern dews and the life-giving showers are to +vegetation.</p> + +<p>But further yet, Israel is to be the <i>only</i> medium of God's blessing upon +the nations--the only channel. Those refusing her leadership will, for +lack of vital sap, die of dry rot. The wondrous blessing enjoyed by this +central nation, the unhingeing of dungeon doors, the opening of blind +eyes, the mellowing of all the hard conditions of life, the reign of +simple, full justice to all, is to be shared with all the nations. +Israel's peace with all nations is to become a universal peace between and +among all nations.</p> + +<p>But there's still more. There are to follow certain radical changes in +the realm of <i>nature</i>. Splendid rivers of water are to flow through +Jerusalem, necessitating changes in the formation of the land there. The +fortress capital of the Jews strongly entrenched among the Judean hills is +to become, as the world's metropolis, a mighty city, with rivers to float +the earth's commerce. The light of the sun and moon will be greatly +increased, and yet this greatly intensified light will become at Jerusalem +a shadow cast by the greater light of the presence of God. A devout Hebrew +would associate this back with the light of the Presence-cloud in the +Arabian barrens. While the devout Christian will likely, quickly think +forward from that to the light that was one time as the sun, and, again, +above the sun's brightness. Naturally, with this comes a renewed fertility +of the earth's soil, and the removal of the curse upon vegetation. Before +the healing light and heat the poisonous growth, the blight of drought and +of untempered heat disappear. There is to be a new earth and above it a +new heaven.</p> + +<p>To complete the picture, the <i>animal</i> creation is to undergo changes as +radical as these. Beasts dangerous because of ferocity and because of +treachery and poisonous qualities will be wholly changed. Meat-eating +beasts will change their habit of diet, and eat grain and herbs. There +will be a mutual cessation of cruelty to animals by man and of danger to +man from animals, for all violence will have ceased.</p> + +<p>And then the climax is capped by repeated assurances that this marvellous +kingdom will be as extensive as the earth and absolutely unending.</p> + +<p>The whole thing, be it keenly noticed, is simply a return to the original +condition. In the Eden garden was the presence of God, a masterful man in +the likeness of God, with full dominion over all creation. There was full +accord in all nature, and perfect fellowship between man and nature.</p> + +<p>All this is to come to pass through the coming One. He is the key that +unlocks this wondrous future. Through all, above all, growing ever bigger, +is the shadowy majestic figure of <i>a Man coming.</i> His personal +characteristics make Him very attractive and winsome. He will be of +unusual mental keenness both in understanding and in wisdom, combined with +courage of a high order, and, above all, dominated by a deep reverential, +a keenly alert, love for God. He will be beautiful in person and, in sharp +contrast with earth's kings, while marked personally with that fine +dignity and majesty unconscious of itself, will be gentle and +unpretentious in His bearing. His relations with God are direct and very +intimate, being personally trained and taught by Him. Backed by all of His +omnipotence, He will be charged with the carrying out of His great plans +for the chosen people and through them for the world.</p> + +<p>In a fine touch it is specially said that "He will judge the <i>poor</i>." Poor +folk, who haven't money to employ lawyers to guard their interests, and +haven't time for much education to know better how to protect themselves +against those who would take advantage of them--the <i>poor</i>, that's the +overwhelming majority of the whole world--He will be <i>their</i> judge. They +will have a friend on the bench. But He will have this enormous advantage +in judging all men, poor and otherwise, that He will not need to decide by +what folk tell Him, nor by outside things. He will be able to read down +into the motives and back into the life.</p> + +<p>Such is the plan for the coming One outlined in these old pages. To many a +modern all this must seem like the wildest dream of an utterly unpractical +enthusiast. Yet, mark it keenly, this is the conception of this old Hebrew +book that has been, and is, the world's standard of morals and of wisdom. +The book revered above all others by the most thoughtful men, of all +shades of belief. It is striking how the parts of this stupendous +conception fit and hold together. There is a mature symmetry about the +whole scheme. For instance, the changes in the light of sun and moon run +parallel with the changes in growth and in the healthfulness and longer +lives of man. Increased light removes both disease and its cause, and +gives new life and lengthened life.</p> + +<p>Surely these Hebrews are a great people <i>in their visions</i>. And a vision +is an essential of greatness. Yet this sublime conception of their future +is not regarded as a visionary dream, but calmly declared to be the +revealed plan of God for them, and through them for the earth. And that, +too, not by any one man, but successively through many generations of +men. The prophetic spirit of the nation in the midst of terrible disaster +and of moral degradation never loses faith in its ultimate greatness, +through the fulfilling of its mission to the nations of the earth.</p> + +<p>Is it to be wondered at that the devout Israelite, who believed in his +book and its vision, pitched his tent on the hilltop, with his eye ever +scanning the eastern horizon, for the figure of the coming One? And when +eyes grown dim for the long looking believed that at last that figure was +seen, the heart breathed out its grateful relief in "Now lettest thou thy +servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen."</p> + + + +<h4>Strange Dark Shadowings.</h4> + + +<p>But, too, there is in this vision of glory something very different, so +mixed in that it won't come out. There are dark shadows from the first +touch upon the canvas. Always there is a bitter, malignant enemy. There is +decisive victory, but it comes only after sharp, hard, long-continued +fighting. But in the latter parts, that is, in David's time, and +intensifying in the later pages, there is something darker yet. Through +these lines run forebodings, strange, weird, sad forebodings of evil. +There are dark gray threads, inky black threads, that do not harmonize +with the pattern being woven. And the weavers notice it, and wonder, and +yet are under a strange impulse to weave on without understanding.</p> + +<p>Their coming One is to be a king, but there is the distinct consciousness +that there would be for Him terrible experiences through which He must +pass, and to which He would yield on His way to the throne. The very +conception seems to involve a contradiction which puzzles these men who +write them down. Like a lower minor strain running through some great +piece of music are the few indications of what God fore<i>knew</i>, though He +did not foreplan, would happen to Jesus. A sharp line must always be drawn +between what God plans and what He knows will happen. The soft sobbing of +what God could see ahead runs as a minor sad cadence through the story of +His plans.</p> + +<p>Sometimes these forebodings are <i>acted out</i>. In the light of the Gospels +we can easily see very striking likenesses between the experiences in +which keen suffering precedes great victory, of such <i>national leaders</i> as +Joseph and David, and the experiences of Jesus. Here is <i>God's</i> plan of +atonement by blood, involving suffering, but with no such accompaniments +of hatred and cruelty as Jesus went through. Read backward, Jesus' +experience on the cross is seen to bear striking resemblances, in part, to +this old scheme of atonement; yet only in part: the parts concerning His +character and the results; but not the <i>manner</i> of his death, nor the +<i>spirit</i> of the actors.</p> + +<p>Then there are the few direct specific passages predicting a stormy trip +for the king before the haven is reached. There is a vividness of detail +in the very language here, that catches us, familiar with after events, +as it could not those who first heard. There is the Twenty-second Psalm, +with its broken sentences, as though blurted out between heart-breaking +sobs; and then the wondrous change, in the latter part, to victory +<i>through</i> this terrible experience. And the scanty but vivid lines in the +Sixty-ninth Psalm. There is that great throbbing fifty-third of Isaiah, +with its beginning back in the close of the fifty-second, and the striking +ahead of its key-note in the fiftieth chapter.</p> + +<p>Daniel listens with awe deepening ever more as Gabriel tells him that the +coming Prince is to be "<i>cut off</i>." To the returned exiles rebuilding the +temple Zechariah acts out a parable in which Jehovah is priced at thirty +pieces of silver, the cost of a common slave. And a bit later God speaks +of a time when "they shall look upon Me (or Him) whom they <i>have +pierced</i>." And later yet, a still more significant phrase is used, as +identifying the divine character of the sufferer, where God speaks of a +sword being used "against the man that is <i>My Fellow</i>," adding, "Strike +the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." It is God's Fellow--one +on a par with Himself--against whom the opposition is directed.</p> + +<p>Such is the great vision in these Hebrew pages of the plan for the coming +One. There is a throne on a high mountain peak bathed in wondrous sublime +glory, but the writers are puzzled at a dark valley of the shadow of +death through which the king seems to be obliged to pick His way up to the +throne.</p> + +<p>Jesus is to be God's new Man leading man back on the road into the divine +image again, with full mastery of his masterly powers, and through mastery +into full dominion again; but the road back seems to be <i>contested</i>, and +the new Man gets badly scarred as He fights through and up to victory.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h3>The Tragic Break in the Plan</h3> + + + +<h4>The Jerusalem Climate.</h4> + + +<p>Then <i>Jesus</i> came. His coming was greeted with great gladness above, and +great silence below. Above, the stars sent a special messenger to bid Him +welcome to the earth they lightened and brightened. Below, the rusty +hinges of earth's inn refused to swing for Him. So man failing, the lower +creation shared room with Him.</p> + +<p>Above, was the sweetest music, the music of heaven. Three times the music +of heaven is mentioned: at the creation, at this coming of Jesus, at the +coming crowning of Jesus in John's Revelation. Below, the only music was +that of the babe's holy young mother, God's chosen one to mother His Son, +crooning to her babe; and the gentle lowing in minor key of the oxen whose +stall He shared. Above, the great glory shining, the messenger of God +speaking a message of peace and love. Below, only darkness and silence.</p> + +<p>Among the cultured leaders of the city of David, and of Solomon, and of +God's once glorified temple, there were no ears for the message, nor eyes +for the glory. They had gone deaf and blind Godward long before. To them +came no message, for no door was open. To simple men of nature who lived +with the stars and the hills and the sheep, came the new shining of the +glory, and the wondrous messenger and message. Their doors were open. They +practised looking up. Of course neither city nor country mattered, nor +matters. God always speaks into the upturned ear and looks into the +upturned face.</p> + +<p>And so Jesus came. With all of its contrasts it was a winsome coming. A +pure young mother nursing her babe; the babe with its sweet wondrous face, +a fresh act of God indeed; the simple unselfish cattle; the bright stars; +the Glory shining; the sudden flood of music; the Lord's messenger; the +message--a very winsome coming.</p> + +<p>He came into the peculiar climate of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is Judea. Out of +the Babylonian remnant of Israel had come great men, true leaders, with +great zeal for the city, and the temple, and the temple service, and for +the law. They made the mould in which this later Jerusalem was cast. But +that mould retaining its old form, had now become filled with the baser +metals. The high ideals of the new makers of the city had shrunk into mere +ideas. The small, strongly entrenched ruling circle were tenacious +sticklers for traditions as interpreted by themselves. That fine old word +conservative (with an underneath meaning of "what we prefer") was one of +their sweetest morsels. Underneath their great pride as Moses' successors, +the favored custodians of the nation's most sacred treasures, was a +passionate love for gold. The temple service was secretly organized on +the profit-sharing plan, with the larger share, as usual, for the +organizers.</p> + +<p>That hardest thing in the whole range of human action to overcome, either +by God or man or the devil--prejudice--they had, in the Simon-pure form, +superlatively refined. The original treasure of God's Word was about as +much overlaid and hidden away by writings about it as--it has been in some +other times. Of course they were looking for a Messiah, the one hope of +their sacredly guarded literature. But He must be the sort that they +wanted, and--could use.</p> + +<p>Herod the King was a man of great ability, great ambition, great passion, +and great absence of anything akin to conscience. But the virtual ruler +was the high priest. His office was bargained for, bought and sold for the +money and power it controlled in the way all too familiar to corrupt +political life in all times, and not wholly unknown in our own. The old +spiritual ideals of Moses, and Samuel, preached amid degeneracy by Elijah +and Isaiah, were buried away clear out of sight by mere formalism, though +still burning warm and tender in the hearts of a few. This was the +atmosphere of the old national capital into which Jesus came.</p> + + + +<h4>The Bethlehem Fog.</h4> + + +<p>Then it was that Jesus came. Strange to say, there is a shadow over His +coming from the beginning. A gray chilling shadow of the sort of gray that +a stormy sky sometimes shows, gray tingeing into slaty black. Yet it was +the coming that made the shadow. It takes light, and some thick thing like +a block, and some distance for perspective, to make a shadow. The nearer +the light to the block thing the blacker the shadow. Here the light came +close to some thick blocks; of stupid thickness; human blocks grown more +toughly thick by the persistent resisting of any such transparent thing as +light.</p> + +<p>This was a foggy shadow. A fog is always made by influences from below. A +lowering temperature chills the air, and brings down its moisture in the +shape of a gray subtle pervasive mist, that blurs the outlook, and often +gathers and holds black smoke, and mean poisonous odors and gases from bog +and swamp. Such a fog endangers both health and life. This was just such a +shadowing fog. There was a decided drop in the temperature, a sudden +chill, a fog formed that sucked up the poison of the marshes, and +threatened to stifle the baby breath of the new-born King.</p> + +<p>A subtle, intangible, but terribly sure something haunts and hunts the +King from the first. His virgin mother is suspected by the one nearest her +of the most serious offense that can be charged against a woman. The +shadow that later grew to inky blackness came ahead of the man, and, under +the stable eaves, waited grimly His arrival. The feverish green of Herod's +eyes will be content with nothing but a new, bright, running red, and +plenty of it. Satan's plan of killing was started early. He was not +particular about the way it was done. The first attempt was at Bethlehem. +The venomous spittle oozed out there first. But he must move along natural +channels: just now, a murderous king's jealous dread of a possible rival.</p> + +<p>The first hint of the actual coming of the long expected One is from the +star-students of the east. Their long journey and eager questioning bring +the birth of Jesus before the official circle of the nation. It is most +significant that His birth causes at once a special meeting of the +nation's ruling body. Herod was troubled, of course. But--all Jerusalem +was troubled <i>with</i> him. Here is a surprising sympathy. It reflects at +once vividly the situation. It was strangely suggestive that news of their +King coning should trouble these national leaders. These devout +star-watchers are wise in the source of information they came to. These +leaders knew. They quickly pointed out the spot where the coming One +<i>should</i> be born.</p> + +<p>A pure virgin under cruel suspicion, a roomless inn, a village filled with +heart-broken mothers, a quick flight on a dark night to a foreign land by +a young mother and her babe, the stealthy retirement into a secluded spot +away from his native province, a fellow feeling between a red-handed king +and the nation's leaders--ugh! an ugly, deadly fog.</p> + + + +<h4>The Man Sent Ahead.</h4> + + +<p>A high fence of silence shuts out from view the after years. Just one +chink of a crack appears in the fence, peering through which, one gets a +suggestion of beautiful simplicity, of the true, natural human growing +going on beyond the fence.</p> + +<p>When mature years are reached, the royal procession is formed. A man is +sent ahead to tell of the King's coming. John was Jesus' diplomatic +representative, His plenipotentiary extraordinary; that is, the one man +specifically sent to represent Him to the nation whose King He was. +Treatment of John was treatment of Jesus. A slight done him was slighting +his sovereign Master. If Sir Henry Mortimer Durand were to be slighted or +treated discourteously by the American authorities, it would be felt at +London as a slight upon the King, the government, and the nation they +represent. Any indignity permitted to be done on American soil to von +Stuckenburg would be instantly resented by Kaiser William as personal to +himself. John was Jesus' Durand, His von Stuckenburg, His Whitelaw Reid. +And no diplomat ever used more tactful language than this John when +questioned about his Master. In Jesus' own simile, John was His <i>best +man</i>. Jesus was a bridegroom. John stood by His side as His most intimate +friend.</p> + +<p>Jesus and John are constantly interwoven in the events of Jesus' career. +We moderns, who do everything by the calendar, have been puzzled in the +attempt to piece together these events into an exact calendar arrangement. +And the beautiful mosaic of the Gospels has been cut up to make a new, +modern, calendar mosaic. But these writers see things by <i>events</i>, not by +<i>dates</i>. They have in mind four great events, and about these their story +clusters. And in these Jesus and John are inextricably interwoven. First +is John's wilderness ministry, heading up in his presenting Jesus to the +nation. Then John's violent seizure, and Jesus' withdrawal from the danger +zone. Then John's death, and Jesus' increased caution in His movements. +Then Jesus' death. John comes, points to Jesus, and goes. Jesus comes, +walks a bit with John, reaches beyond him and then goes, too.</p> + +<p>John baptized. That is, he used a purifying rite in connection with his +preaching. It helps to remember the distinction between baptism as +practised in the Christian Church, and as practised by John, and by Jesus +in His early ministry. In the church, baptism has come to be regarded as a +dedicatory rite by some, and by others an initial and confessional rite. +But in the first use of it, by John and Jesus, it was a purifying rite. It +was a confession too, but of sin, and the need of cleansing, not, as +later, of faith in a person, or a creed, although it did imply acceptance +of a man's leadership. To a Hebrew mind it was preaching by symbol as well +as by word. The official deputation sent from Jerusalem to look John up +asked why he should be using a purifying rite if he were neither the +Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. They could understand the +appropriateness of either of these three persons using such a rite in +connection with his preaching as indicating the national need of +cleansing. And in the beginning Jesus for a time, through His disciples, +joined in John's plan of baptizing those who confessed sorrow for sin.</p> + +<p>Jesus acknowledged John as His own representative, and honored him as +such, from first to last. He gives him the strongest approval and backing. +The national treatment of John always affects Jesus' movements. When, +toward the close, His authority is challenged, He at once calls attention +to the evident authority of His forerunner and refuses to go farther.</p> + +<p>A trace of that ominous, puzzling foreboding noticed in the Old Testament +vision of the coming One creeps in here. Pointing to Jesus, John says, +"Behold the lamb of God, who beareth (away) the sin of the world." Why did +John say that? <i>We</i> read his words backward in the light of Calvary. But +<i>he</i> could not do that, and did not. He knew only a <i>King</i> coming. Why? +Even as Isaiah fifty-third, and Psalm twenty-second were written, the +writers there, the speaker here, impelled to an utterance, the meaning of +which, was not clear to themselves.</p> + +<p>This relation and intimacy between these two, John and Jesus, must be +steadily kept in mind.</p> + + + +<h4>The Contemptuous Rejection.</h4> + + +<p>From the very first, though Jesus was <i>accepted by individuals</i> of every +class, <i>He was rejected by the nation</i>. This is the twin-fact standing out +in boldest outline through the Gospel stories. The nation's rejection +began with the formal presentation of Him to it by John. First was the +simple refusal to accept, then the decision to reject, then the +determination that everybody else should reject too. First, that He should +not be admitted to their circle, then that He should be kept out of their +circle, and then that He should be kept out of every circle. There are +these three distinct stages in the rejection from the Jordan waters to the +Calvary Hill.</p> + +<p>First came <i>the contemptuous rejection</i>. John was a great man. Made of the +same rugged stuff as the old prophets, he was more than they in being the +King's own messenger and herald. In his character he was great as the +greatest, though not as great in privilege as those living in the kingdom. +He preached and baptized. With glowing eyes of fire, deep-set under shaggy +brows, and plain vigorous speech which, if pricked, would ooze out red +life, he told of the sin that must be cleaned out as a preparation for the +coming One. And to all who would, he applied the cleansing rite.</p> + +<p>He had great drawing power. Away from cultured Jerusalem on the hilltops +down to the river bottoms, and the stony barrens of the Jordan; from the +Judean hill country, away from the stately temple service with its music +and impressive ritual, to his simple open-air, plain, fervid preaching, he +drew men. All sorts came, the proud Pharisee, the cynical Sadducee, the +soldiers, the publicans, farmers, shepherds, tradespeople--all came. His +daily gatherings represented the whole people. The nation came to his +call. It was the unconscious testimony of the nation to his rugged +greatness and to his divine mission. They were impelled to come, and +listen, and do, and questioningly wonder if this can be the promised +national leader.</p> + +<p>One day a committee came from the Jewish Senate to make official inquiry +as to who he claimed to be. With critical, captious questions they demand +his authority. True to his mission and his Master, he said, "I am not +<i>the</i> One, but sent to tell you that He's coming, and so near that it's +time to get ready." Then the next day, as Jesus walks quietly through the +crowd, probably just back from the wilderness, he finishes his reply to +the deputation. With glowing eyes intently riveted upon Jesus, and finger +pointing, before the alert eyes of his hundreds of hearers--Pharisees, +Sadducees, official committee, Roman soldiers, and common folk--he said in +clear, ringing tones, "<i>That is He: the coming One!</i>"</p> + +<p>No more dramatic, impressive presentation could have been made of Jesus to +the nation. To their Oriental minds it would be peculiarly significant, +Mark keenly the result. On the part of the leaders <i>utter silence</i> There +could be no more cutting expression of their contempt. With eyebrows +uplifted, eyes coldly questioning, their lips slightly curling, or held +close together and pursed out, and shoulders shrugging, their contempt, +utter disgusted contempt, could not be more loudly expressed. If they had +had the least disposition to believe John's words about Jesus, even so far +as to <i>investigate</i> patiently and thoroughly, how different would their +conduct have been! But--only silence. And silence long continued. Jesus +gave them plenty of time before the next step was taken. No silence ever +spoke in louder voice. That same day five thoughtful men of that same +throng <i>did</i> investigate, and were satisfied, and gave at once loyal, +loving allegiance.</p> + +<p>A few months later, the Passover Feast drew crowds from everywhere to +Jerusalem. Jesus coming into the temple areas, with the crowds, one day, +is struck at once with the strange scene. Instead of reverent, holy quiet, +as worshippers approached the dwelling-place of God, with their offerings +of penitence and worship, the busy bustle of a market-place greets His +ears. The noise of cattle and sheep being driven here and there, the +pavement like an unkempt barnyard, loud, discordant voices of men handling +the beasts and bargaining over exchange rates at the brokers' +tables--strange scene. Is it surprising that His ear and eye and heart, +perhaps fresh from a bit of quiet morning talk with His Father, were +shocked? Here, where everything should have called to devotion, everything +<i>jarred</i>.</p> + +<p>Quietly and quickly putting some bits of knotted string together, He +started the stock out, doubtless against the protests of the keepers. With +flashing light out of those keen eyes, He tipped over the tables, spilling +out their precious greedy coins, and ordered the crates of pigeons +removed. But all with no suggestion of any violence used toward anybody. +Reluctantly, perhaps angrily, wholly against their plans and wishes, the +crowd, impelled by <i>something</i> in this unknown Man, with no outer evidence +of authority, goes. It is a remarkable tribute, both to the power of His +personal presence and to His executive faculty.</p> + +<p>Of course the thing made trouble. It was the talk of the town, and of all +the foreigners for days after. The leaders were aroused and angered, +deeply angered. This stranger had kicked up a pretty muss with His +inconvenient earnestness and inconsiderate quoting of Scripture. It was a +practical assumption of superior authority over them. It was an assumption +of the truth of John's ignored claim that He was the promised King.</p> + +<p>Was not this arrangement in the temple area a great convenience for the +many strangers, who were their brothers and guests; a real kindly act of +hospitality? Yes--and was it not, too, a finely organized bit of business +for profiting by these strangers, a using of their proper authority over +the temple territory to transfer their brothers' foreign coins safely over +to their own purses? Aye, it was a transmuting of their holy offices into +gold by the alchemy of their coarse, greedy touch.</p> + +<p>Jesus' conduct was the keenest sort of criticism of these rulers, before +the eyes of the nation and of the thousands of pilgrims present. These +leaders never forgave this humiliating rebuke of themselves. It made their +nerves raw to His touch ever after. Here is the real reason of all their +after bitter dislike. They had a sensitive pocket-nerve. It was a sort of +pneumogastric nerve so close did it come to their lives. Jesus touched it +roughly. It never quit aching. Scratch all their later charges against Him +and under all is this sore spot. The tree of the cross began growing its +wood that day. Their hot, captious demand for authority, meant as much for +the ears of the crowd as for His, brought from Jesus, who read His future +in their hearts, a reply which they could not understand. They asked their +question for the crowd to hear, He replied for His disciples to remember +in the after years. There could be no evidence of authority more +significant than this temple incident.</p> + +<p>His first public work was done at this time. The great throng of pilgrims +from around the world, attracted to Him by this simple daring act of +leadership, witnessed a group of mighty acts during these Passover days. +The angry leaders had critically asked for "signs" of His authority. He +gave them in abundance, not in response to their captious demand, but +doubtless, as always, in response to pressing human needs. The result was +that many persons accepted Him, but the nation in its rulers, maintained +their attitude of angered, contemptuous silence. But underneath that +surface the pot is beginning to boil.</p> + +<p>Of all the members of the national Senate, one, <i>just one</i>, comes to make +personal inquiry, and sift this man's claim sincerely and candidly. And +he, be it marked, chooses a darkened hour for that visit. That night hour +speaks volumes of the smouldering passion under their contempt. That Jesus +recognized fully their attitude and just what it meant comes out in that +quiet evening talk. To that sincere inquirer, He frankly Jays, "You people +won't receive the witness that John and I have brought you." He was +pleading before a court that stubbornly refuses testimony of fact. And to +this honest seeker, whom we must all love for his sincerity, He reveals +His inner consciousness of a tragic break coming, with a pleading word for +personal trust, and a saddened "men love darkness."</p> + +<p>With the going away of the Passover crowds, Jesus leaves the national +capital, and assists in the sort of work John was doing. His power to draw +men, and men's eagerness for Him, stand out sharply at once. John had +drawn great crowds of all classes. Jesus drew greater crowds. Multitudes +eagerly accepted John's teaching and accepted baptism from him. As it +turned out, greater multitudes of people, under the very eyes of these +ignoring, contemptuous leaders, accepted Jesus' leadership. John baptized. +Jesus baptized through His disciples. These leaders in their questioning +of John had tacitly acknowledged the propriety of "the Christ" using such +a rite. Jesus follows the line of least resistance, and fitted into the +one phase of His work which they had recognized as proper.</p> + +<p>The pitiable fact stands out that the only result with <i>them</i> is a wordy +strife about the relative success of these two, Jesus and John. The most +that their minds, steeped in jealousies and rivalries, ever watching with +badger eyes to undercut some one else, could see, was a rivalry between +these two men. John's instant open-hearted disclaimer made no impression +upon them. They seemed not impressionable to such disinterested loyalty.</p> + +<p>A little later, probably not much, John's ruggedly honest preaching +against sin came too close home to suit Herod. He promptly shuts up the +preacher in prison, with no protest from the nation's leaders. These +leaders had developed peculiar power in influencing their civil rulers by +the strenuousness of their protests. That they permitted the imprisonment +of John with no word of protest, was a tacit throwing overboard of John's +own claims, of John's claims for Jesus, and of Jesus' own claim.</p> + +<p>Here is the first sharp crisis. From the first, the circle of national +leaders characterized by John, the writer of the Gospel, as "the Jews," +including the inner clique of chief priests and the Pharisees, ignored +Jesus; with silent contempt, coldly, severely ignored. This was before the +temple-cleansing affair. That intensified their attitude toward the next +stage. They had to proceed cautiously, because the crowd was with Jesus. +And full well these keen leaders knew the ticklishness of handling a +fanatical Oriental mob, as subsequent events showed. Now John is +imprisoned, with the consent of these leaders, possibly through their +connivance.</p> + +<p>Jesus keenly and quickly grasps the situation. First ignored, then made +the subject of evil gossip, the temple clash, and now His closest friend +subjected to violence, His own rejection is painfully evident. He makes a +number of radical changes. His <i>place</i> of activity is changed to a +neighboring province under different civil rule; His <i>method</i>, to +preaching from place to place; His <i>purpose</i>, to working with +<i>individuals</i>. There's a peculiar word used here by Matthew to tell of +Jesus' departure from Judea to a province under a different civil ruler; +"He <i>withdrew</i>." The word used implies going away because of danger +threatening. We will run across it again and each time at a crisis point.</p> + +<p>The leaders refused Jesus because He was not duly labelled. It seems to be +a prevailing characteristic to want men labelled, especially a +characteristic of those who make the labels. There is always an eager +desire regarding a stranger to learn whom he represents, who have put +their stamp upon him and accepted him. And if the label is satisfactory, +he is acccepted in the degree in which the label is accepted. Others are +marked with a large interrogation point. Inherent worth has a slow time. +But sure? Yes, but slow. Jesus bore no label whose words they could spell +out or wanted to. They were a bit rusty in the language of worth. How +knoweth this man letters, having never learned! He seems to know, to know +surprisingly well. He seems keenly versed in the law, able quickly to turn +the tables upon their catch questions. But then it can't be the real +article of learning, because He hasn't been in our established schools. He +has no sheepskin in a dead language with our learned doctors' names +learnedly inscribed. How indeed! An upstart!!</p> + +<p>Yet always to the earnest, sincere inquirer there was authority enough. In +His acts, an open-minded doctor of the law could read the stamp of God's +approval. The ear open to learn, not waxed up by self-seeking plans, or +filled with gold dust, heard the voice of divine approval out of the +clouds, or in His presence and acts.</p> + + + +<h4>The Aggressive Rejection.</h4> + + +<p>Then came the second stage, <i>the aggressive rejection.</i> This is the +plotting stage. Their hot passion is cooling now into a hardening purpose. +This has been shaping itself under the surface for months. Now it is open. +This was a crowded year for Jesus, and a year of crowds. The Galileans +had been in His southern audiences many a time and seen His miracles. The +news of His coming up north to their country swiftly spread everywhere. +The throngs are so great that the towns and villages are blockaded, and +Jesus has recourse to the fields, where the people gather in untold +thousands.</p> + +<p>An ominous incident occurs at the very beginning of this Galilean work. It +is a fine touch of character that Jesus at once pays a visit to His home +village. One always thinks more of Him for that. He never forgot the home +folk. The synagogue service on the Sabbath day gathers the villagers +together. Jesus takes the teacher's place, and reads, from Isaiah, a bit +of the prophecy of the coming One. Then with a rare graciousness and +winsomeness that wins all hearts, and fastens every eye upon Himself, He +begins talking of the fulfilment of that word in Himself.</p> + +<p>Then there comes a strange, quick revulsion of feeling. Had some +Jerusalem spy gotten in and begun his poisoning work already? Eyes begin +to harden and jaws become set. "Why, that is the man that made our +cattle-yoke."--"Yes, and fixed our kitchen table."--"He--the Messiah!" +Then words of rebuke gently spoken, but with truth's razor edge. Then a +hot burst of passion, and He is hustled out to the jagged edge of the hill +to be thrown over. Then that wondrous presence awing them back, as their +hooked hands lose hold, and their eyes again fasten with wonder, and He +passed quietly on His way undisturbed. Surely that was the best evidence +of the truth of His despised word.</p> + +<p>Seven outstanding incidents here reveal the ever-hardening purpose of the +leaders against Jesus. First comes another clash in the temple. Their +ideas of what was proper on the Sabbath day receive a shock because a man +enslaved by disease for years was healed with a word from Jesus' lips. +Could there be a finer use of a Sabbath day! We can either think them +really shocked, or hunting for a religious chance to fight Him. Jesus' +reply seems so to enrage that a passion to kill Him grips them. It is +notable that they had no doubt of the extent of Jesus' claim; "He called +God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." On these two things, +His use of the Sabbath, and His claim of divinity, is based the aggressive +campaign begun that day.</p> + +<p>The incident draws from Him the marvellous words preserved by John in his +fifth chapter. In support of His claim He quietly brings forward five +witnesses, John His herald, His own miraculous acts, His Father, the +Scriptures entrusted to their care, and Moses, the founder of the nation. +That was a great line of testimony. This first thought of killing Him +seems to have been a burst of hot, passionate rage, but gradually we shall +find it cooled into a hardened, deliberate purpose.</p> + +<p>At once Jesus returns to the northern province. And now they begin to +follow Him up, and spy upon His movements and words. In Capernaum, His +northern headquarters, a man apparently at unrest in soul about his sins, +and palsied in body, is first assured of forgiveness, and then made bodily +whole. Their criticism of His forgiving sins is silenced by the power +evidenced in the bodily healing. But their plan of campaign is now begun +in earnest, and is evident at once. Later criticism of His personal +conduct and habits with the despised classes is mingled with an attempt to +work upon His disciples and undermine their loyalty. The Sabbath question +comes up again through the disciples satisfying their hunger in the grain +fields, and brings from Jesus the keen comment that man wasn't made for +the Sabbath, but to be helped through that day, and then the statement +that must have angered them further that He was "Lord of the Sabbath."</p> + +<p>Another Sabbath day in the synagogue they were on hand to see if He would +heal a certain man with a whithered hand whom they had gotten track of, +"that they might accuse Him." They were spying out evidence for the use of +the Jerusalem leaders. To His grief they harden their hearts against His +plea for saving a <i>man</i>, a <i>life</i>, as against a tradition. And as the man +with full heart and full eyes finds his chance of earning a living +restored, they rush out, and with the fire spitting from their eyes, and +teeth gritting, they plan to get their political enemies, the Herodians, +to help them kill Jesus. A number of these incidents give rise to these +passionate outbursts to kill, which seem to cool off, but to leave the +remnants that hardened into the cool purpose most to be dreaded.</p> + +<p>A second time occurs that significant word, "withdrew." Jesus withdrew to +the sea, followed by a remarkable multitude of Galileans, and others from +such distant points as Tyre and Sidon on the north, Idumea on the extreme +south, beyond the Jordan on the east, and from Jerusalem. He was safe with +this sympathizing crowd.</p> + +<p>The crowds were so great, and the days so crowded, that Jesus' very eating +was interfered with. His friends remonstrate, and even think Him unduly +swayed by holy enthusiasm. But it is a man come down from Jerusalem who +spread freely among the crowds the ugly charge that He was in league with +the devil, possessed by an <i>unclean</i> spirit, and that that explained His +strange power. No uglier charge could be made. It reveals keenly the +desperate purpose of the Jerusalem leaders. Clearly it was made to +influence the crowds. They were panic-stricken over these crowds. What +could He not do with such a backing, if He chose! Such a rumor would +Spread like wildfire. Jesus shows His leadership. He at once calls the +crowds about Him, speaks openly of the charge, and refutes it, showing the +evident absurdity of it.</p> + +<p>Then a strange occurrence takes place. While He is teaching a great crowd +one day, there is an interruption in the midst of His speaking Oddly, it +comes from His mother and her other sons. They send in a message asking +to see Him at once. This seems very strange. It would seem probable from +the narrative that they had access to Him constantly. Why this sudden +desire by the one closest to Him by natural ties to break into His very +speaking for a special interview? Had these Jerusalem men been working +upon the fears of her mother heart for the safety of her Son? She would +use her influence to save Him from possible danger threatening? There is +much in the incident to give color to such a supposition. Perhaps a man of +such fineness as He could be checked back by consideration for His +mother's feelings. They were quite capable of pulling any wire to shut Him +up, however ignorant they showed themselves of the simple sturdiness of +true character. But the same man who so tenderly provides for His mother +in the awful pain of hanging on a cross reminds her now that a divine +errand is not to be hindered by nature's ties; that clear vision of duty +must ever hold the reins of the heart.</p> + +<p>Then comes the most terrible, and most significant event, up to this time, +in the whole gospel narrative--the murder of John. This marks the sharpest +crisis yet reached. For a year or so John had been kept shut up in a +prison dungeon, evidence of his own faithfulness, and of the low moral +tone, or absence of moral tone, of the time. Then one night there is a +prolonged, debased debauchery in a magnificent palace; the cunning, cruel +scheme of the woman whose wrong relation to Herod John had honestly +condemned. The dancing young princess, the drunken oath, the terrible +request, the glowing-coal eyes closed, the tongue that held crowds with +its message of sin, and of the coming One stilled, the King's herald +headless--the whole horrible, nightmare story comes with the swiftness of +aroused passion, the suddenness of a lightning flash, the cold cruelty of +indulged lust.</p> + +<p>Instantly on getting the news Jesus "<i>withdrew</i>"--for the third time +withdrew to a retired desert place. This had tremendous personal meaning +for Him. Nothing has occurred thus far that spells out for Him the coming +tragic close so large, so terribly large, as does this. He stays away from +the Passover Feast occurring at this time, the only one of the four of His +public career He failed to attend.</p> + + + +<h4>The Murderous Rejection.</h4> + + +<p>This crisis leads at once into the final stage, <i>the murderous rejection</i>. +Jesus is now a fugitive from the province of Judea, because the death plot +has been deliberately settled upon. The southern leaders begin a more +vigorous campaign of harrying Him up in Galilee. A fresh deputation of +Pharisees come up from Jerusalem to press the fighting. They at once bring +a charge against Jesus' disciples of being untrue to the time-honored +traditions of the national religion. Yet it is found to be regarding such +trivial things as washing their hands and arms clear up to the elbows each +time before eating, and of washing of cups and pots and the like. Jesus +sharply calls attention to their hypocrisy and cant, by speaking of their +dishonoring teachings and practices in matters of serious moment. Then He +calls the crowd together and talks on the importance of being clean +<i>inside</i>, in the heart and thought. Before all the crowds He calls them +hypocrites. It's a sharp clash and break. Jesus at once "withdrew." It is +the fourth time that significant danger word is used. This time His +withdrawal is clear out of the Jewish territory, far up north to the +vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, on the seacoast, and there He attempts to +remain unknown.</p> + +<p>After a bit He returns again, this time by a round-about way, to the Sea +of Galilee. Quickly the crowds find out His presence and come; and again +many a life and many a home are utterly changed by His touch. With the +crowd come the Pharisees, this time in partnership with another group, the +Sadducees, whom they did not love especially. They hypocritically beg a +sign from heaven, as though eager to follow a divinely sent messenger. But +He quickly discerns their purpose to <i>tempt</i> Him into something that can +be used against Him. The sign is refused. Jesus never used His power to +show that He could, but only to help somebody.</p> + +<p>The fall of that year found Him boldly returning to the danger zone of +Jerusalem for attendance on the harvest-home festival called by them the +Feast of Tabernacles. It was the most largely attended of the three annual +gatherings, attracting thousands of faithful Jews from all parts of the +world. The one topic of talk among the crowds was Jesus, with varying +opinions expressed; but those favorable to Him were awed by the keen +purpose of the leaders to kill Him. When the festival was in full swing, +one morning, Jesus quietly appears among the temple crowds, and begins +teaching. The leaders tried to arrest Him, but are held back by some +hidden influence, nobody seeming willing to take the lead. Then the clique +of chief priests send officers to arrest Him. But they are so impressed by +His presence and His words, that they come back empty-handed, to the +disgust of their superiors. Great numbers listening believe on Him, but +some of the leaders, mingling in the crowd, stir up discussion so sharp +that with hot passion, and eyes splashing green light, they stoop down and +pick up stones to hurl at Him and end His life at once. It is the first +attempt at personal violence in Jerusalem. But again that strange +restraining power, and Jesus passes out untouched.</p> + +<p>As he quietly passes through and out, He stops to give sight to a blind +man. Interestingly enough it occurs on a Sabbath day. Instantly the +leaders seize on this, and have a time of it with the man and his parents +in turn, with this upshot, that the man for his bold confession of faith +in Jesus is shut out from all synagogue privileges, in accordance with a +decision already given out. He becomes an outcast, with all that that +means. It's a fine touch that Jesus hunts up this outcast and gives him a +free entrance into His own circle.</p> + +<p>After this feast-visit to Jerusalem, Jesus probably returns to Galilee, as +after previous visits there, and then one day leads His band of disciples +up to the neighborhood of snow-capped Hermon. Here probably occurs the +transfiguration, the purpose of which was to tie up these future leaders +of His, against the events now hurrying on with such swift pace. From this +time begins the preparation of this inner circle for the coming tragedy so +plain to His eyes.</p> + +<p>Then begins that memorable last journey from Galilee toward Jerusalem +through the country on the east of the Jordan. With marvellous boldness +and courage He steadfastly set His face toward Jerusalem. The +ever-tightening grip of His purpose is in the set of His face. The fire +burning so intensely within is in His eye as He tramps along the road +alone, with the disciples following, awestruck and filled with wondering +fear. Thirty-five deputations of two each are sent ahead into all the +villages to be visited by Him. What an intense campaigner was Jesus! He +was thoroughly, systematically stumping the whole country for God.</p> + +<p>As He approaches nearer to the Jerusalem section the air gets tenser and +hotter. The leaders are constantly harrying His steps, tempting with catch +questions, seeking signs, poisoning the crowds--mosquito warfare! He moves +steadily, calmly on. Some of the keenest things He said flashed out +through the friction of contact with them. A tempting lawyer's question +brings out the beautiful Samaritan parable. The old Sabbath question +provokes a fresh tilt with a synagogue ruler. There is a cunning attempt +by the Pharisees to get Him out of Herod's territory into their own. How +intense the situation grew is graphically told in Luke's words, they +"began to set themselves vehemently against Him, and to provoke Him to +speak many things; laying wait for Him to catch something out of His +mouth."</p> + +<p>Though unmoved by the cunning effort of the Pharisees to get Him over from +Herod's jurisdiction into Judea, despite their threatening attitude, the +winter Feast of Dedication finds Him again in Jerusalem walking in one of +the temple areas. Instantly He is surrounded by a group of these Jerusalem +Jews who, with an air of apparent earnest inquiry, keep prodding Him with +the request to be told plainly if He is really the Christ. His patient +reply brings a storm of stones--almost. Held in check for a while by an +invisible power, or by the power of His presence shown under such +circumstances so often, again they attempt to seize His person, and again +He seems invisibly to hold their hands back, as He quietly passes on His +way out of their midst.</p> + +<p>Then comes the stupendous raising of Lazarus, which brings faith in Him to +great numbers, and results in the formal official decision of the national +council to secure His death. He is declared a fugitive with a price set +upon His head. Anybody knowing of His whereabouts must report the fact to +the authorities. This decides Him not to show Himself openly among them. +In a few weeks the pilgrims are crowding Jerusalem for the Passover. +Jesus' name is on every tongue. The rumor that He was over the hills in +Bethany takes a crowd over there, not simply to see Him, but to see the +resurrected Lazarus. Then it was determined to kill Lazarus off, too.</p> + +<p>That tremendous last week now begins. Jesus is seen to be the one masterly +figure in the week's events. In comparison with His calm steady movements, +these leaders run scurrying around, here and there, like headless hens. +The week begins with the most public, formal presentation of Himself in a +kingly fashion to the nation. It is their last chance. How wondrously +patient and considerate is this Jesus! And how sublimely heroic! Into the +midst of those men ravenous for His blood He comes. Seated with fine, +unconscious majesty on a kingly beast, surrounded by ever-increasing +multitudes loudly singing and speaking praises to God, over paths +bestrewed with garments and branches of living green, slowly He mounts the +hill road toward the city. At a turn in the road all of a sudden the city +lies spread out before Him. "He saw the city and wept over it."</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "He sat upon the ass's colt and rode</div> +<div class="line"> Toward Jerusalem. Beside Him walked</div> +<div class="line"> Closely and silently the faithful twelve,</div> +<div class="line"> And on before Him went a multitude</div> +<div class="line"> Shouting hosannas, and with eager hands</div> +<div class="line"> Strewing their garments thickly in the way.</div> +<div class="line"> Th' unbroken foal beneath Him gently stepped,</div> +<div class="line"> Tame as its patient dam; and as the song</div> +<div class="line"> Of 'Welcome to the Son of David' burst</div> +<div class="line"> Forth from a thousand children, and the leaves</div> +<div class="line"> Of the waving branches touched its silken ears,</div> +<div class="line"> It turned its wild eye for a moment back,</div> +<div class="line"> And then, subdued by an invisible hand,</div> +<div class="line"> Meekly trod onward with its slender feet.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "The dew's last sparkle from the grass had gone</div> +<div class="line"> As He rode up Mount Olivet. The woods</div> +<div class="line"> Threw their cool shadows directly to the west;</div> +<div class="line"> And the light foal, with quick and toiling step,</div> +<div class="line"> And head bent low, kept up its unslackened way</div> +<div class="line"> Till its soft mane was lifted by the wind</div> +<div class="line"> Sent o'er the mount from Jordan. As He reached</div> +<div class="line"> The summit's breezy pitch, the Saviour raised</div> +<div class="line"> His calm blue eye--there stood Jerusalem!</div> +<div class="line"> Eagerly He bent forward, and beneath</div> +<div class="line"> His mantle's passive folds a bolder line</div> +<div class="line"> Than the wont slightness of His perfect limbs</div> +<div class="line"> Betrayed the swelling fulness of His heart.</div> +<div class="line"> There stood Jerusalem! How fair she looked--</div> +<div class="line"> The silver sun on all her palaces,</div> +<div class="line"> And her fair daughters 'mid the golden spires</div> +<div class="line"> Tending their terrace flowers; and Kedron's stream</div> +<div class="line"> Lacing the meadows with its silver band</div> +<div class="line"> And wreathing its mist-mantle on the sky</div> +<div class="line"> With the morn's exhalation. There she stood,</div> +<div class="line"> Jerusalem, the city of His love,</div> +<div class="line"> Chosen from all the earth: Jerusalem,</div> +<div class="line"> That knew Him not, and had rejected Him;</div> +<div class="line"> Jerusalem for whom He came to die!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "The shouts redoubled from a thousand lips</div> +<div class="line"> At the fair sight; the children leaped and sang</div> +<div class="line"> Louder hosannas; the clear air was filled</div> +<div class="line"> With odor from the trampled olive leaves</div> +<div class="line"> But 'Jesus wept!' The loved disciple saw</div> +<div class="line"> His Master's tear, and closer to His side</div> +<div class="line"> He came with yearning looks, and on his neck</div> +<div class="line"> The Saviour leaned with heavenly tenderness,</div> +<div class="line"> And mourned, 'How oft, Jerusalem! would I</div> +<div class="line"> Have gathered you, as gathereth a hen</div> +<div class="line"> Her brood beneath her wings--but ye would not!'</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "He thought not of the death that He should die--</div> +<div class="line"> He thought not of the thorns He knew must pierce</div> +<div class="line"> His forehead--of the buffet on the cheek--</div> +<div class="line"> The scourge, the mocking homage, the foul scorn!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Gethsemane stood out beneath His eye</div> +<div class="line"> Clear in the morning sun; and there, He knew,</div> +<div class="line"> While they who 'could not watch with Him one hour'</div> +<div class="line"> Were sleeping, He should sweat great drops of blood,</div> +<div class="line"> Praying the cup might pass! And Golgotha</div> +<div class="line"> Stood bare and desert by the city wall;</div> +<div class="line"> And in its midst, to His prophetic eye</div> +<div class="line"> Rose the rough cross, and its keen agonies</div> +<div class="line"> Were numbered all--the nails were in His feet--</div> +<div class="line"> Th' insulting sponge was pressing on His lips--</div> +<div class="line"> The blood and water gushed from His side--</div> +<div class="line"> The dizzy faintness swimming in His brain--</div> +<div class="line"> And, while His own disciples fled in fear,</div> +<div class="line"> A world's death agonies all mixed in His!</div> +<div class="line"> Ah!--He forgot all this. He only saw</div> +<div class="line"> Jerusalem--the chosen--the loved--the lost!</div> +<div class="line"> He only felt that for her sake His life</div> +<div class="line"> Was vainly given, and in His pitying love</div> +<div class="line"> The sufferings that would clothe the heavens in black</div> +<div class="line"> Were quite forgotten.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Was there ever love,</div> +<div class="line"> In earth or heaven, equal to this?"<sup><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>And so the King entered His capital. It was a royal procession. Mark +keenly the result. Again that utter, ominous, loud silence, that greeted +His ears first, more than three years before. He had come to His own home. +His own kinsfolk received Him not!</p> + +<p>Then each day He came to the city, and each night, homeless, slept out in +the open, under the trees of Olivet, and the blue. Now, He rudely shocks +them by clearing the temple areas of the market-place rabble and babble, +and now He is healing the lame and maimed in the temple itself, amid the +reverent praise of the multitude, the songs of the children, and the +scowling, muttered protests of the chief priests. Calmly, day by day, He +moves among them, while their itching fingers vainly clutch for a hold +upon Him, and as surely are held back by some invisible force. By every +subtle device known to cunning, crafty men, they lay question-traps, and +lie in wait to catch His word. He foils them with His marvellous, simple +answers, lashes them with His keen, cutting parables and finally Himself +proposes a question about their own scriptures which they admit themselves +unable to answer, and, utterly defeated, ask no more questions. Then +follows that most terrific arraignment of these leaders, with its +infinitely tender, sad, closing lament over Jerusalem. That is the final +break.</p> + +<p>Then occurs that pathetic Greek incident that seems to agitate Jesus so. +This group of earnest seekers, from the outside, non-Jewish world brings +to Jesus a vision of the great hungry heart of the world, and of an +open-mindedness to truth such as was to Him these days as a cool, +refreshing drink to a dusty mouth on a dry hot day. But--no--the Father's +will--simple obedience--only that was right. The harvest can come only +through the grain giving out its life in the cold ground.</p> + +<p>Before the final act in the tragedy Jesus retires from sight, probably for +prayer. Some dear friends of Bethany in whose home He had rested many a +time, where He ever found sweet-sympathy, arranged a little home-feast for +Him where a few congenial friends might gather. While seated there in the +quiet atmosphere of love and fellowship so grateful to Him after those +Jerusalem days, one of the friends present, a woman, Mary, takes a box of +exceeding costly ointment, and anoints His head. To the strange protests +made, Jesus quietly explains her thought in the act. She alone understood +what was coming. Alone of all others it was a woman, the simple-hearted +Bethany Mary, who <i>understood</i> Jesus. As none other did she perceive with +her keen love-eyes the coming death, and--more--its meaning.</p> + +<p>It is one of the disciples, Judas, who protests indignantly against such +<i>waste</i>. This ointment would have brought at least seventy-five dollars, +and how much such a sum would have done for the <i>poor</i>! Thoughtless, +improvident woman! Strange the word didn't blister on his canting lips. +John keenly sees that his fingers are clutching the treasure bag as he +speaks the word, and that his thoughts are far from the poor. Jesus gently +rebukes Judas. But Judas is hot tempered, and sullenly watches for the +first chance to withdraw and carry out the damnable purpose that has been +forming within. He hurries over the hill, through the city gate, up to the +palace of the chief priest.</p> + +<p>Within there was a company of the inner clique of the leaders, discussing +how to get hold of Jesus most easily. They sit heavily in their seats, +with shut fists, set jaws, and that peculiar yellow-green light spitting +out from under their lowering, knit brows. These bothersome crowds had to +be considered. The feast-day wouldn't do. The crowd would be greatest +then, and hardest to handle. Back and forth they brew their scheme. Then a +knock at the door. Startled, they look alertly up to know who this +intruder may be. The door is opened. In steps a man with a hangdog, +guilty, but determined look. It is one of the men they have seen with +Jesus! What can this mean? He glances furtively from one to another.</p> + +<p>Then he speaks: "How much'll you give if I get Jesus into your hands?" Of +all things this was probably the last they had thought might happen. Their +eyes gleam. How much indeed--a good snug sum to get their fingers securely +on his person. But they're shrewd bargainers. That's one of their +specialties. How much did he <i>want</i>? Poor Judas! He made a bad bargain +that day. Thirty pieces of silver! He could easily have gotten a thousand. +Judas did love money greedily, and doubtless was a good bargainer too, but +anger was in the saddle now, and drove him hard. Without doubt it was in a +hot fit of temper that he made this proposal. His descendants have been +coining money out of Jesus right along: exchanging Him for gold.</p> + +<p>Only a little later, and the Master is closeted with His inner circle in +the upper room of a faithful friend's house in one of the Jerusalem +streets, for the Passover supper. A word from Him and Judas withdraws for +his dark errand. Then those great heart-talks of Jesus, in the upper room, +along the roadway, under the full moon, maybe passing by the massive +temple structure, then under the olive trees. Then the hour grows late, +the disciples are drowsy, the Master is off alone among those trees, then +weird uncertain lights of torches, a rabble of soldiers and priests, a man +using friendship's cloak, and friendship's greeting--then the King is in +the hands of His enemies. An awful night, followed by a yet more awful +day, and the plan of the kingdom is broken by the tragic killing of the +King.</p> + + + +<h4>Suffering the Birth-pains of a New Life.</h4> + + +<p>Why did Jesus die? It's a pretty old question. It's been threshed out no +end of times. Yet every time one thinks of the gospel, or opens the Book, +it looks out earnestly into his face. And nothing is better worth while +than to have another serious prayerful go at it. The whole nub of the +gospel is here. It clears the ground greatly not to have any theory about +Jesus' death, but simply to try thoughtfully to gather up all the +statements and group them, regardless of where it may lead, or how it may +knock out previous ideas.</p> + +<p>It can be said at once that His dying was not God's own plan. It was a +plan conceived somewhere else, and yielded to by God. God had a plan of +atonement by which men who were willing could be saved from sin and its +effects. That plan is given in the old Hebrew code. To the tabernacle, or +temple, under prescribed regulations, a man could bring some live animal +which he owned. The man brought that which was his own. It represented +him. Through his labor the beast or bird was his. He had transferred some +of his life and strength into it. He identified himself with it further by +close touch at the time of its being offered. He offered up its life. In +his act he acknowledged that his own life was forfeited. In continuing to +live he acknowledged the continued life as belonging to God. He was to +live as belonging to another. He made, in effect, the statement made long +after by Paul: "I am offering up my life on this altar for my sin; +nevertheless I am living: yet the life I live is no longer mine, but +another's. Mine has been taken away by sin." There was no malice or evil +feeling in the man's act, but only penitence, and an earnest, noble +purpose.</p> + +<p>The act revealed the man's inner spirit. It acknowledged his sin, that +life is forfeited by sin, his desire to have the sin difficulty +straightened out, and to be at one again with God. He expressed his hatred +of sin and his earnest desire to be free of it. I am not saying at all +that this was true of every Hebrew coming with his sacrifice. I may not +say it of all who approach God to day through Jesus. But clearly enough, +all of this is in the old Hebrew <i>plan</i> devised by God. It was the new +choice that brought the man back to God, even as the first choice had +separated him from God. And the explicit statement made over and over is +this, "and it shall make atonement."</p> + +<p>Clearly Jesus' dying does not in any way fit into the old Hebrew <i>form</i> of +sacrifice, nor into the spirit of the man who caused the death of the +sacrifice, though in spirit, in requirement it far more than fills it out. +The Old Testament scheme is Jewish. The manner of Jesus' death is not +Jewish, but Roman. As a priest He was not of the Jewish order, but of an +order non-Jewish and antedating the other by hundreds of years. In no +feature does He fit into the old custom. But every truth taught by the old +is brilliantly exemplified and embodied in Him.</p> + +<p>The epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jews who had become Christians, +but through persecution and great suffering were sorely tempted to go back +to the old Jewish faith. They seemed to be saying that Jesus filled out +neither the kingdom plan, nor the Mosaic scheme of sacrifice. The writer +of the epistle is showing with a masterly sweep and detail the immense +superiority of what Jesus did over the old Mosaic plan. Read backward, +these provisions are seen to be vivid illustrations of what Jesus did do, +not in form, not actually, but in fact, in spirit, in a way vastly ahead +of the Hebrew ritual. The truth underneath the old was fully fulfilled in +Jesus, though the form was not.</p> + +<p>One needs always to keep sharply in mind the difference between God's +<i>plan</i> and that which He clearly saw ahead, and into which He determined +to fit in carrying out His purpose. There is no clearer, stronger +statement of this than that found in Peter's Pentecost sermon: "Him being +delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by +the hands of men without law did crucify and slay." God knew ahead what +would come. There was a conference held. The whole matter talked over. +With full knowledge of the situation, the obstinate hatred of men, the +terrific suffering involved, it was calmly, resolutely advised and decided +upon that when the time came Jesus should yield Himself up pliantly into +their hands. That is Peter's statement.</p> + +<p>This in no way affects the fact that Jesus dying as He did is the one +means of salvation. It does not at all disturb any of Paul's statements, +in their plainest, first-flush meaning. It does explain the kingdom plan, +and the necessity for Jesus finishing up the kingdom plan some day. For +though God's plan may be broken, and retarded, it always is carried +through in the end. It explains too that evil is never necessary to good. +Hatred, evil never helps God's plans. The good that God brought out of the +cross is not through the bad, but in spite of the bad.</p> + +<p>The preaching of the Acts is absorbed with the astounding, overshadowing, +appalling fact of the killing of the nation's King. But through it all +runs this strain of reasoning: the kingdom plan has been broken by the +murder of the King. He has been raised from the dead in vindication of His +claim. This marvellous power that is so evident to all eyes and ears is +the Holy Spirit whom the killed King has sent down. It proves that He is +now enthroned in glory at God's right hand. He is coming back to carry out +the kingdom plan. Now the thing to do is to repent, and so there will come +blessing now, and by and by the King again.</p> + +<p>When the first church council is held to discuss the matter of letting +non-Jewish outsiders into their circle, the clear-headed, +judicial-tempered James, in the presiding chair, puts the thing straight. +He says: "Peter has fully told us how God <i>first</i> visited the outside +nations to take out of them a people for Himself. And this fits into the +prophetic plan as outlined by Amos, that <i>after</i> that the kingdom will be +set up and then <i>all</i> men will come."</p> + +<p>This brings out in bold relief the fact that the <i>horrible</i> features of +Jesus' dying, the hatred and cruelty, were no part of the plan of +salvation, and not necessary to the plan. The cross was the invention of +hate. There is no cross in God's plan of atonement. It is the superlative +degree of hate, brooded and born, and grown lusty in hell. It was God's +master touch that, through yielding, it <i>becomes</i> to all men for all time +the superlative degree of love. The ages have softened all its sharp +jagged edges with a halo of glory.</p> + +<p>It is perfectly clear, too, that Jesus died of His own accord. He chose +the <i>time</i> of His death and the <i>manner</i> of it. He had said it was purely +voluntary on His part, and the record plainly shows that it was. All +attempts to kill Him failed until He chose to yield. There are ten +separate mentions of their effort, either to get hold of His person or to +kill Him at once before they finally succeeded. He was killed <i>in intent</i> +at least three times, once by being dashed over a precipice, and twice by +stoning, before He was actually killed by crucifixion. Each time +surrounded by a hostile crowd, apparently quite capable of doing as they +pleased, yet each time He passes through their midst, and their hooked +fingers are restrained against their will, and their gnashing teeth bite +only upon the spittle of their hate.</p> + +<p>This makes Jesus' <i>motive</i> in yielding explain His death. The cross means +just what His purpose in dying puts into it. If we read the facts of the +gospel stories apart from Jesus' words, the cross spells out just one +word--in large, pot-black capitals--HATE.</p> + +<p>What was Jesus' motive or purpose in dying? His own words give the best +answer. The earlier remarks are obscure to those who heard, not +understood. And we can understand that they could not. At the first +Passover He speaks of their destroying "this temple," and His raising it +in three days. Naturally they think of the building of stone, but He is +thinking of His body. To Nicodemus He says that the Son of Man must "be +<i>lifted up</i>": and to some critics that when the "bridegroom" is "taken +away" there will be fasting among His followers.</p> + +<p>Later, He speaks much more plainly. After John has gone home by way of +Herod's red road, at the time of the feeding of the 5,000 there is the +discussion about bread, and the true bread. Jesus speaks a word that +perplexes the crowd much, and yet He goes on to explain just what He +means. It is in John, sixth chapter, verses fifty-three to fifty-seven +inclusive, He says that if a man eat His flesh and drink His blood he +shall have eternal life. The listening crowd takes the words literally and +of course is perplexed. Clearly enough it is not meant to be taken +literally. Read in the light of the after events it is seen to be an +allusion to His coming death. Such a thing as actually eating His flesh +and drinking His blood would necessitate His death.</p> + +<p>We men are under doom of death written in our very bodies, assured to us +by the unchangeable fact of bodily death. Now if a man take Jesus into his +very being so that they become one in effect, then clearly if Jesus die +the man is freed from the necessity of dying. Through Jesus dying there is +for such a man <i>life</i>. That is the statement Jesus makes.</p> + +<p>In five distinct sentences He attempts to make His meaning simple and +clear. The first sentence puts the <i>negative</i> side: there is no life +without Jesus being taken into one's being. Then the positive side: +through this sort of eating there is <i>life</i>. And with this is coupled the +inferential statement that they are not to be spared <i>bodily</i> death, +because they are to be <i>raised up</i>. The third sentence, that Jesus is the +one true food of real life. The fourth sentence gives a parallel or +interchangeable phrase for eating and drinking, <i>i.e.</i>, "<i>abideth</i> in me +and I in Him." A mutual abiding in each other. The food abides in the man +eating it. The man abides in the strength of the food He has taken in. +Eating My flesh means abiding in Me. The last sentence gives an +illustration. This living in Jesus, having Him live in us as closely as +though actually eaten, is the same as Jesus' own life on earth being lived +in His Father, dependent upon the Father. And when the crowds take His +words literally and complain that none can understand such statements, He +at once explains that, of course, He does not mean literal eating--"The +flesh profiteth nothing" (even if you did eat it): "it is the <i>Spirit</i> +that gives life:" "the <i>words</i> ... are <i>Spirit</i> and <i>life</i>." The taking +of Jesus through His words into one's life to dominate--that is the +meaning.</p> + +<p>A few months later, in Jerusalem, He speaks again of His purpose, in +John's tenth chapter, "The good shepherd layeth down His life for the +sheep." "I lay down my life for the sheep." The death was for others +because of threatening danger. "Other sheep I have which are not of this +fold: them also I must lead." Here is clear foresight of the wide sweep of +influence through His death. "I lay down my life that I may take it +again." The death was <i>one step</i> in a plan. There is something beyond. "I +lay it down of myself. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the +right to take it again. This commandment I received from my Father." The +dying was voluntary and was agreed to between the Father and Himself. To +the disciples He speaks of the need of taking up a "cross" in order to be +followers, and to the critical Pharisee asking a sign, He alludes to +Jonah's three days and nights in the belly of the sea monster. Neither of +these allusions conveyed any definite idea to those listening.</p> + +<p>Then the last week when the Greeks came; "Except a grain of wheat fall +into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it +beareth much fruit." The dying was to have great influence upon others. +"And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto myself." +The dying was to be <i>for others</i>, and to exert tremendous influence upon +the whole race.</p> + +<p>In that last long talk with the eleven, "that the world may know that I +love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even so I do." The +dying was in obedience to His Father's wish, and was to let men know of +the great love between Father and Son. "Greater love hath no man than +this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This dying was for +these friends. And in that great prayer that lays His heart bare, "for +their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified in truth." +The dying is <i>for others</i>, and is for the securing in these others of a +certain spirit or character. The reference to the dying being in accord +with the Father's wish comes out again at the arrest, "The cup that the +Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"</p> + +<p>To these quotations from Jesus' lips may be added a significant one from +the man who stood closest to Jesus. Referring to a statement about Jesus +made by Caiaphas, John adds: "being high priest that year he prophesied +that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but +that He might gather together into one the children of God that are +scattered abroad." As John understood the matter, the death was not simply +for others, but for the <i>Jewish nation</i> as a nation, and beyond that for a +gathering into one of <i>all</i> of God's children. Jesus was to be God's +magnet for attracting together all that belong to Him. The death was to be +a roadway through to something beyond.</p> + +<p>From His own words, then, Jesus saw a <i>necessity</i> for His dying. He +"must" be lifted up. That "must" spells out the desperateness of the need +and the strength of His love. Sin contains in itself death for man as a +logical result. And by death is not meant the passing of life out of the +body. That is a mere incident of death. Death is separation from God. It +is gradual until finally complete. Love would plan nothing less radical +than a death that would be for man the death of death. His death was to be +<i>for others</i>, it was purely <i>voluntary</i>, it was by agreement with His +Father, in obedience to His wishes, and an evidence of His filial love. +The death is a step in a plan. There is something beyond, growing out of +the death.</p> + +<p>Jesus plans not merely a transfer of the death item, but a <i>new</i> life, a +new <i>sort</i> of life, in its place. The dying is but a step. It is a great +step, tremendously great, indispensable, the step that sets the pace. Yet +but one step of a number. Beyond the dying is the <i>living</i>, living a <i>new</i> +life. He works out in Himself the plan for them--a dying, and after that a +new life, and a new sort of life. Then according to His other teaching +there is the sending of some One else to men to work out in His name in +each of them this plan. That plan is to be worked out in each man choosing +to receive Him into his life. He will send down His other self, the Holy +Spirit, to work this out in each one. Jesus' death released His life to be +re-lived in us. Jesus plans to get rid of the sin in a man, and put in +something else in its place. The sin must be gotten out, first washed +out, then burned out. Then a new seed put in that will bear life. What a +chemist and artist in one is this Jesus! He uses bright red, to get a pure +white out of a dead black.</p> + +<p>In addition to the plan for man individually, the dying is to produce the +same result in the Jewish nation. There is to be a national new-birth. A +new Jewish people. And then the dying is to have a tremendous influence +upon all men. On the cross Jesus would suffer the birth-pains of a new +life for man and for the world. Such, in brief, seems to be the grouping +of Jesus' own thought about His dying. Its whole influence is manward.</p> + +<p>The value of Jesus' dying lies wholly in its being <i>voluntary</i>. Of +deliberate purpose He <i>allowed</i> them to put Him to death. Otherwise they +could not, as is fully proven by their repeated failures. And the purpose +as well as the value of the death lies entirely in His <i>motive</i> in +yielding. If they could have taken His life without His consent, then that +death would have been an expression of their hate, and only that. But as +it is, it forever stands an expression of two things. On their part of the +intensest, hottest hate; on His part of the finest, strongest love. It +makes new records for both hate and love. Sin put Jesus to death. In +yielding to these men Jesus was yielding to sin, for they personified sin. +And sin yielded to quickly brought death, its logical outcome.</p> + +<p>Jesus' dying being His own act, controlled entirely by His own intention, +makes it <i>sacrificial</i>. There are certain necessary elements in such a +sacrifice. It must be voluntary. It must involve pain or suffering of some +sort. The suffering must be <i>undeserved</i>, that is, in no way or degree a +result of one's own act, else it is not sacrifice, but logical result. It +must be for others. And the suffering must be of a sort that would not +come save for this voluntary act. It must be supposed to bring benefit to +the others. Each of these elements must be in to make up fully a +sacrifice. There are elements of sacrifice in much noble suffering by man. +But in no one do all of these elements perfectly combine and blend, save +in Jesus.</p> + +<p>To this agree the words of the philosopher of the New Testament writers. +It would be so, of course, for the Spirit of Jesus swayed Paul. The +epistle to the Romans contains a brief packed summary of his understanding +of the gospel plan. There is in it one remarkable statement of the +<i>Father's</i>, purpose in Jesus' death. In the third chapter, verse +twenty-six, freely translated, "that He might be reckoned righteous in +reckoning righteous the man who has faith." "That He might be reckoned +righteous"--that is, in His attitude toward sin. That in allowing things +to go on as they were, in holding back sin's logical judgment, He was not +careless or indifferent about sin or making light of it. He was controlled +by a great purpose.</p> + +<p>God's great difficulty was to make clear at once both His love and His +hate: His love for man: His hate for the sin that man had grained in so +deep that they were as one. For the man's sake He must show His love to +win and change him. For man's sake He must show His hate of sin that man, +too, might know its hatefulness and learn to hate it with intensest hate. +His love for man is to be the measure of man's hate for sin. The death of +Jesus was God's master-stroke. At one stroke He told man His estimate of +man and His estimate of man's sin; His love and His hate. It was the +measureless measure of His hate for sin, and His love for man. It was a +master-stroke too, in that He took sin's worst--the cross--and in it +revealed His own best. Out of what was meant for God's defeat, came sin's +defeat, and God's greatest victory.</p> + +<p>And the one simple thing that transfers to a man all that Jesus has worked +out for him is what is commonly called "faith." That is, trusting God, +turning the heart Godward, yielding to the inward upward tug, letting the +pleasing of God dominate the life. This, be it keenly marked, has ever +been the one simple condition in every age and in every part of the earth.</p> + +<p>Abraham <i>believed</i> God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. The +devout Hebrew, reverently, penitently standing with his hand on the head +of his sacrifice, at the tabernacle door, <i>believed</i> God and it was +reckoned to <i>him</i> for righteousness. The devout heathen with face turned +up to the hill top, and feet persistently toiling up, patiently seeking +glory and honor and incorruption <i>believes</i> God, though he may not know +His name, and it is reckoned to <i>him</i> for righteousness. The devout +Christian, with his hand in Christ's, <i>believes</i> God, and it is counted to +<i>him</i> for righteousness.</p> + +<p>The devout Hebrew, the earnest heathen, and the more enlightened believer +in Jesus group themselves here by the common purpose that grips them +alike. The Hebrew with his sacrifice, the heathen with his patient +continuance, and the Christian who <i>knows</i> more in knowing Jesus, stand +together under the mother wing of God.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h3>Some Surprising Results of the Tragic Break</h3> + + + +<h4>The Surprised Jew.</h4> + + +<p>God proposes. Man disposes. God proposed a king, and a world-wide kingdom +with great prosperity and peace. Man disposed of that plan for the bit of +time and space controlled by his will, and in its place interposed for the +king, a cross. Out of such a radical clashing of two great wills have come +some most surprising results.</p> + +<p>The first surprise was for the Jew. Within a few weeks after Jesus' final +departure, Jerusalem, and afterward Palestine, was filled with thousands +of people believing in Him. A remarkable campaign of preaching starts up +and sweeps everything before it. Jesus' name was on every tongue as never +before. But there were earnest Jews who could not understand how Jesus +could be the promised Messiah. He had not set up a kingdom. Their +Scriptures were full of a kingdom.</p> + +<p>The Jew, whether in their largest colony in Babylon, or in Jerusalem, or +in Rome, or Alexandria, or the smaller colonies everywhere, was full of +the idea, the hope, of a kingdom. He was absorbed with more or less +confused and materialized, unspiritual ideas of a coming glory for his +nation through a coming king. But among the followers of this Jesus there +is something else coming into being, a new organization never even hinted +at in their Scriptures. It is called the church. It is given a name that +indicates that it is to be made up of persons taken out from among all +nations.</p> + +<p>There comes to be now a three-fold division of all men. There had been +with the Jews, always, a two-fold division, the Jew and the Gentiles, or +outside nations. Now three, the Jew, the outsiders, and the church. The +church is an eclectic society, a chosen out body. Its principle of +organization is radically different from that of the Hebrew nation. There +membership was by birthright. Here it is by individual choice and belief.</p> + +<p>Foreigners coming in were not required to become Jews, as under the old, +but remained essentially as they have been in all regards, except the one +thing of relationship to Jesus in a wholly spiritual sense. There is +constant talk about "the <i>gospel</i> of the kingdom," but the kingdom itself +<i>seems</i> to have quite slipped away, and the church is in its place. Such a +situation must have been very puzzling to any Jew. His horizon was full of +a kingdom--a <i>Jew</i> kingdom. Anything else was unthinkable. These intense +Orientals could not conceive of anything else. It had taken a set of +visions to swing Peter and the other church leaders into line even on +letting outsiders into the church.</p> + +<p>This Jesus does not fill out this old Hebrew picture of a king and a +kingdom. How <i>can</i> He be the promised Messiah? This was to thousands a +most puzzling question, and a real hinderance to their acceptance of +Jesus, even by those profoundly impressed with the divine power being +seen.</p> + +<p>This was the very question that had puzzled John the Baptist those weary +months, till finally he sends to Jesus for some light on his puzzle. Jesus +fills out part of the plan, and splendidly, but only part, and may be what +seems to some the smaller part. Can it be, John asks, that there is to be +another one coming to complete the picture? To him Jesus does not give an +answer, except that he must wait and trust. He would not in words +anticipate the nation's final rejection, though so well He knew what was +coming. Their chance was not yet run out for the acceptance of Jesus that +would fill out John's picture. God never lets His foreknowledge influence +one whit man's choice. It was a most natural and perplexing difficulty, +both for John and later for these thousands.</p> + +<p>The answer to all this has its roots down in that tragic break. In the old +picture of the Messiah there are two distinct groups of characteristics of +the coming king, <i>personal</i> and <i>official</i>. He was to have a direct +personal relation to men and an official relation to the nation, and +through it to the world. The personal had in it such matters as healing +the sick, relieving the distressed, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, +easing heart strains, teaching and preaching. It was wholly a personal +service. The official had, of course, to do with establishing the great +kingdom and bringing all other nations into subjection. Now, it was a bit +of the degeneracy of the people and of the times, that when Jesus came the +blessings to the individual had slipped from view, and that the national +conception, grown gross and coarse, had seized upon the popular +imagination, and was to the fore.</p> + +<p>Jesus filled in perfectly with marvellous fulness the individual details +of the prophetic picture. Of course filling in the national depended upon +national acceptance, and failure there meant failure for that side. And, +of course, He could not fill out the national part except through the +nation's acceptance of Him as its king. Rejection there meant a breaking, +a hindering of that part. And so Jesus <i>does not</i> fill out the old Hebrew +picture of the Messiah. He could not without the nation's consent. Man +would have used force to seize the national reins. But, of course, God's +man could not do that. It would be against God's plan for man. Everything +must be through man's consent.</p> + +<p>Out of this perplexity there came to be the four Gospels. They grew up out +of the needs of the people. Mark seems to have written his first. He makes +a very simple recital, setting down the group of facts and sayings as He +had heard Peter telling them in many a series of talks. It is the +simplest of the four, aiming to tell what he had gotten from another. But +it offers no answer to these puzzling questions.</p> + +<p>Matthew writes his account of the gospel for these great numbers of +perplexed, earnest Jewish questioners. They are Palestinian Jews, +thoroughly familiar with Jewish customs and places. Sitting backward on +the edge of the Hebrew past, thoroughly immersed in its literature and +atmosphere, but with his face fastened on Jesus, he composes out of the +facts about Jesus and the old prophetic scriptures a perfect bit of +mosaic. There is the fascination of a serpent's eye in turning from the +prophetic writings to the Gospel of Matthew. Let a man become immersed and +absorbed in the vision of the Hebrew prophetic books and then turn to +Matthew to get the intense impression that this promised One <i>has</i> come, +at last has actually come, <i>and</i>--tragedy of tragedies--<i>is being +rejected</i>.</p> + +<p>This is the gap gospel. It bridges the gap between the prophetic books and +the book of Acts, between the kingdom which has slipped out and the church +which has come in. It explains the adjournment of the kingdom for a +specified time, the church filling a sort of interregnum in the kingdom. +The kingdom is to come later when the church mission is complete. It tells +with great care and with convincing power that Jesus filled perfectly the +prophecy of the Messiah in every detail <i>personally</i>, and did not fill out +the <i>national</i> features because of the nation's unwillingness. That is +the Matthew Gospel.</p> + +<p>Paul was the apostle to the outside nations. His great work was outside of +Palestine. He dealt with three classes, Jews, outsiders who in religious +matters had allied themselves with the Jews, but without changing their +nationality, and then the great outside majority, chiefly the great crowds +of other nationalities. These people needed a gospel of their own. Their +standpoint is so wholly different from the Jews' that Matthew's gospel +does not suit, nor Mark's. Paul, through Peter and Barnabas and others, +has absorbed the leading facts and teachings of those three years, and +works them over for his non-Jewish crowds. He omits much that would appeal +peculiarly to Jews, and gives the setting and coloring that would be most +natural to his audiences.</p> + +<p>His studious companion, Doctor Luke, undertakes to write down this account +of Jesus' life as Paul tells it, and for Paul's audience and territory, +especially these great outside non-Jewish crowds of people. He goes to +Palestine, and carefully studies and gathers up all the details and facts +available. He adds much that the two previous writers had not included. +One can easily understand his spending several days with Mary, the now +aged mother of Jesus, in John's home in Jerusalem, and from her lips +gleaning the exquisite account of the nativity of her divinely conceived +Son. He largely omits names of places, for they would be unknown and not +of value or interest. When needed, he gives explanation about places.</p> + +<p>These three gospels follow one main line; they tell the story of the +<i>rejection</i> of Jesus. Then there arose a generation that did not know +Jesus, the Jesus that had tramped Jerusalem's streets and Galilee's roads. +Some were wondering, possibly, how it was that these gospels are absorbed +in telling of Jesus' <i>rejection</i>. There surely was a reason for it if He +was so sweepingly rejected. So John in his old age writes. His chief +thought is to show that from the first Jesus was <i>accepted by individuals</i> +as well as <i>rejected by the nation</i>. These two things run neck and neck +through his twenty-one chapters, along the pathway he makes of witnessed, +established facts regarding Jesus. The nation--the small, powerfully +entrenched group of men who held the nation's leadership in their +tenacious fingers--the nation rejects. It's true. But the ugly reason is +plain to all, even the Roman who gave final sentence. From the first, +Jesus was accepted by men of all classes, including the most thoughtful +and scholarly.</p> + +<p>He is writing to the generation that has grown up since Jesus has gone, +and so to all after generations that knew of Him first by <i>hearing</i> of +Him. He is writing after the Jewish capital has been leveled to the +ground, and the nation utterly destroyed as a nation, and to people away +from Palestine. So he explains Jewish usages and words as well as places +in Palestine, to make the story plain and vivid to all. And the one point +at which he drives constantly is to make it clear to all after +generations that men of every sort of Jesus' own generation believed; +questioned, doubted, examined, weighed, <i>believed</i>, with whole-hearted +loving loyalty followed this Jesus.</p> + +<p>This decides the order in which, with such rare wisdom, the churchmen +later arranged the four gospels in grouping the New Testament books. The +order is that of the growth of the new faith of the church from the Jewish +outward. Next to the Hebrew pages lies the gap gospel, then the earliest, +simplest telling, then the outsiders' gospel, and then the gospel for +after generations.</p> + + + +<h4>The Surprised Church.</h4> + + +<p>Man proposes. God disposes. Man may for a time set aside God's plan, but +through any series of contrary events God holds steadily to His own plan. +Temporary defeat is only adjournment, paving the way for later and greater +victory. Another surprise is for the church, that is, the church of later +generations, including our own. The old Jew saw only a triumphant king, +not a suffering king. He saw only a kingdom. There was no hint of any such +thing as a church. The church to-day, and since the day of Constantine, +sees only a church. The kingdom has merged into the church or slipped out +of view.</p> + +<p>There seems to be a confused mixing of church and kingdom, but always with +the church the big thing, and the kingdom a sort of vague, +indefinite--folks don't seem to know just what--an ideal, a spiritual +conception, or something like that. The church is supposed to have taken +the place of the kingdom. Its mission seems to be supposed to be the doing +for the world what the kingdom was to do, but, being set aside, failed to +do.</p> + +<p>In reading the old Book there is a handy sort of explanation largely in +use that applies all that can be fitted into the theory in hand, and +calmly ignores or conveniently adjusts the rest. The Old Testament +blessings for the Jewish kingdom are appropriated and applied to the +church. The curses there are handed over to the Jews or ignored. There +seems to be a plan of interpreting one part of the Bible one way and +another part in a different way. This part is to be taken literally. This +other not literally, spiritually, the only guiding principle being the +man's preconceived idea of what should be. The air seems quite a bit foggy +sometimes. A man has to go off for a bit of fresh air and get straightened +out with himself inside.</p> + +<p>A whiff of keen, sharp air seems needed to clear the fog and bring out the +old outlines--a whiff?--a gale! Yet it must needs blow, like God's wind of +grace always blows, as a soft gentle breeze. The common law among folk in +all other matters for understanding any book or document is that some one +rule of interpretation be applied consistently to all its parts. If we +attempt to apply here the rule of first-flush, common sense meaning, as +would be done to a house lease or an insurance policy, it brings out this +surprising thing. The church is distinct from the kingdom. It came +through the kingdom failing to come. It fits into a gap in the kingdom +plan. It has a mission quite distinct from that of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>The church is to complete its mission and go. The kingdom, in the plain +meaning of the word kingdom, is to come, and be the dominant thing before +the eyes of all men. The church goes up and out. The kingdom comes in and +down. Later the church is to be a part of the executive of the kingdom. +This seems to be the simple standpoint of the Book.</p> + +<p>The tragic break does not hinder the working of the plan. It simply +<i>retards</i> it awhile. A <i>long</i> while? Yes--to man, who counts time by the +bulky measurement of years, and can't seem to shake off the <i>time</i> idea; +who gets absorbed in moments and hours and loses the broad swing of +things. To God?--No. He lives in eternities, and reckons things by events. +His eye never loses the whole, nor a single detail of the whole.</p> + +<p>But yet more. That break leads to an <i>enriching</i> of the plan. Out of hate +God reveals love. Not a greater love, but a greater opportunity for +greatly revealing love. Man's unwillingness and opposition may <i>delay</i> +God's plan, but cannot hinder it. A man can hinder it for his own self if +he so insist. But for others he can only delay, not hinder. Though God may +patiently yield His own plan, for a time, to something else, through which +meanwhile His main purpose is being served, yet He never loses sight of +His own plan--the highest expression of His love. And when He does so +yield, it is that <i>through</i> the interruption He may in the long run work +out the higher and the highest.</p> + +<p>And so in the fulfilment of God's plan as given by His Hebrew spokesmen, +there is a sort of sliding scale. A partial fulfilment takes place, +leaving the full fulfilment for the full working out of the plan. The +fulfilment takes place in two stages, the first being only less full than +the final. Thus Elijah is to come. But first comes John, a man with most +striking resemblance to Elijah. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit +prophesied in Joel is to be upon <i>all</i> flesh. But before that takes place, +comes the Pentecost outpouring, filling out the Joel prophecy in spirit, +but not in the full measure.</p> + +<p>As a matter of good faith the King must come back and carry out the +kingdom plan in full. And judging simply by the character of God and of +Jesus, I haven't a bit of doubt that He will do it. No amount of +disturbance ever alters the love of God, nor His love-plan in the long +run, however patiently He may bear with breaks.</p> + +<p>Even this phase is in the minor strain of the old Hebrew. "They shall look +upon Him whom they have <i>pierced;</i> and they shall <i>mourn</i> for Him, as one +mourneth for his only son." <i>There</i> is a future meeting of the rejected +King and His rejecting people, and this time with sorrow for their former +conduct, which implies different conduct at this meeting time. And to this +agrees the whole swing of the New Testament teaching. Peter says the +going away of Jesus is to be "<i>until</i> the restitution of all things." He +is to return and carry out the old plan.</p> + +<p>It's a bit unfortunate that some earnest, lovable people have pushed this +phase of truth so much to the front as to get it out of its proportion in +the whole circle of truth. Truth must always be kept in its place in the +circle of truth. Truth is fact in right proportion. Out of that it begins +to breed misstatement and error. Jesus' coming back is not to wind things +up. It is to begin things anew. There will be certain phases of judgment, +doubtless, a clearing of the deck for action, but no general judgment till +long after. The kingdom is to swing to the front, and bring a new life to +the earth for a very long time. Then after that the wind-up.</p> + +<p>The gospel preached in the Acts is the "gospel of the <i>kingdom</i>." They are +always expecting it to come. Paul constantly alludes to the Master's +return as the great thing to look forward to, as distinctly at the close +as at the beginning of his ministry. The book of Revelation is distinctly +a kingdom book, and however it may, with the versatility of Scripture to +serve a double purpose, foreshadow the characteristics of history for the +centuries since its writing, plainly its first meaning has to do with the +time when "the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and +of His Christ." The King is coming back to straighten matters out, and +organize a new running of things. This is the church's surprise, and a +great surprise it will apparently be to a great many folks, though not to +all.</p> + + + +<h4>The Surprising Jew.</h4> + + +<p>There is a third surprise growing out of this tragic break, the greatest +of all--<i>the Jew</i>. The first surprises were for the Jew, the later +surprise for the church; this surprise has been and is for all the world. +The Jew has been the running puzzle of history. A strange, elusive, +surprising puzzle he has been to historians and all others. Not a nation, +only a people, flagless, countryless, without any semblance of +organization, they have been mixed in with all the peoples of the earth, +yet always distinctly separate.</p> + +<p>They have been persecuted, bitterly, cruelly, persistently persecuted, as +no other people has ever been, yet with a power of recovery of none other +too. With an astonishing vitality, resourcefulness, and leadership, they +have taken front rank in every circle of life and every phase of activity, +in art, music, science, commerce, philanthropy, statesmanship; holding the +keys of government for great nations, of treasure boxes, and of exclusive +social circles; making their own standards regardless of others, and with +the peculiarity of strongest leadership, pushing on, whether followed or +not.</p> + +<p>And now the past few years comes a new thing. This surprising Jew is +surprising us anew. From all corners of the earth they are gathering as +not since the scattering to the Assyrian plains, gathering to discuss and +plan for the getting into shape as a nation again on the old home soil. +Jews of every sort, utterly diverse in every other imaginable way, except +this of being Jews, men who hate each other intensely because of divergent +beliefs in other matters, yet brushing elbows in annual gatherings to plan +with all their old time intensity a new Jewish nation. Along the highways +of earth, made and controlled by Christian peoples, they come. What does +it mean? They continue to be, as they have been, the puzzle of history.</p> + +<p>This tragic break of the kingdom and the persistency of the King's plan +regardless of the break hold the key to the puzzle. The Jew has been +preserved, divinely preserved, against every attempt at his destruction. +For he is the keystone in the arch of the King's plan for a coming +world-wide dominion.</p> + +<p>Jesus is God's spirit-magnet for the Jew and for all men. Around Him they +will yet gather, with the new Jewish nation in the lead, the church +closest to the person of the king, and all men drawn. Jesus is God's +organizer of the social fabric of the world. In response to His presence +and touch, each in his own place will swing into line and make up a +perfect social fabric.</p> + +<p>With the new zeal for pure, holy living now in the church, the clearer +vision coming to her of the Lord's purpose of evangelizing the world, the +evidence in all parts of the world of men turning their thought anew to +God, this remarkable Jewish movement toward national life, it is a time +for earnest men to get off alone on bent knees, and with new, quietly deep +fervor, to pray "Thy kingdom come." "Even so come, Lord Jesus."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="part" id="part2"> +<h2>II. The Person of Jesus</h2> + + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch05">The Human Jesus.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch06">The Divine Jesus.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch07">The Winsome Jesus.</a></li> +</ol> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch05"> +<h3>The Human Jesus</h3> + + + +<h4>God's Meaning of "Human."</h4> + + +<p>Jesus is God becoming man's fellow. He comes down by his side and says, +"Let's pull up together." Jesus was a man. He was as truly human as though +only human. We are apt to go at a thing from the outside. God always +reaches <i>within</i>, and fastens His hook there. He finds the solution of +every problem within itself. When He would lead man back the Eden road to +the old trysting place under the tree of life He sent a man. Jesus takes +His place as a man and refuses to be budged from the human level with His +brothers.</p> + +<p>That word human has come to have two meanings. The first true meaning, and +a second, that has grown up through sin, and sin's taint and trail. The +second has become the common popular meaning; the first, the forgotten +meaning. It will help us live up to our true possible selves to mark +keenly the distinction. The first is God's meaning, the true. The second +is sin's, the hurt meaning. Constantly we read the effect and result of +sin into God's thought as though that were the real thing. This is grained +in deep, woven into the adages of the race. For instance, "To err is +human, to forgive divine." Yet this catchy statement is not true, save in +part. To forgive is human--God's human--as well as divine. Not to forgive +is devilish. It is not human to err. It is possible to the human being to +err, as it is with angels, but, in erring, man is leaving the human level +and going lower down.</p> + +<p>To understand what it means to say that Jesus is human we must recall what +human meant originally, and has properly come to mean. Man as made by God +before the hurt of sin came had certain powers and limitations. His +powers, briefly, were, mastery of his body, of his mental faculties, and +powers in the spirit realm so lost to us now that we cannot even say +definitely what they are. And mastery means poised, mature control, not +misuse, nor abuse, nor lack of use, but full proper use. Possibly there +were powers of communication between men in addition to speech unknown to +us. Then, too, he had dominion over nature, over all the animal creation, +over all the forces of nature, and not only dominion, but fellowship with +the animal creation and with the forces of nature: dominion <i>through</i> +fellowship.</p> + +<p>He had certain limitations. Having a body was a limitation. The necessity +for food, sleep, rest, and for exertion in order to move through space +acted as a constant check upon his movements and achievements. He could +not go into a building except through some opening. The law of growth, of +such infinite value to man under his conditions, was likewise a check. +Only by slow laborious effort and application would there come the +discipline of mental powers and the knowledge necessary to life's work.</p> + + + +<h4>The Hurt of Sin.</h4> + + +<p>Now, in addition to these natural limitations sin has made other changes. +It has lessened the powers and increased the limitations. There has been +immense loss in the power over the forces of nature, though now, by slow +and very laborious efforts, after centuries, much is being regained. +Instead of fellowship there has been an estrangement between man and the +lower animals and between man and the forces of nature. All of this has +immensely added to man's limitations, though it is true that most men do +not know of what has been lost, so complete has the loss been.</p> + +<p>The natural limitations have been added to. Sin affects the judgment. It +brings ignorance and passion, and they affect the judgment. There results +lack of care of the body, improper use of the strength, and ignorant and +improper use of the bodily functions. Then come weakness and disease and +shortened life, not to speak of the misery included in these and the +enjoyment missed. In the chain of results comes the toil that is drudgery. +Not work, but excessive work, more than one should do, with less strength +than one should have. Work itself under natural conditions is always a +delight. But through sin has come strain, tugging, friction, unequal +division. The changes wrought in nature by sin call for greater effort +with less return. Toil becomes slavish and grinding. Then poverty adds its +tug. And sorrow comes to sap the strength and take away the buoyancy. And +then man's inhumanity to his brothers and sisters. These are some of the +limitations added by sin and ever increasing.</p> + + + +<h4>Our Fellow.</h4> + + +<p>Now, Jesus was human; truly naturally human, God's human, and then more +because of the conditions He found. The love act of creation brought with +it self-imposed limitations to God. And now the love act of saving brings +still more. God made man in His own image. In His humanity Jesus was in +the image of God, even as we are. Adam was an unfallen man. Jesus was that +and more, a tested and now matured unfallen man, and by the law of growth +ever growing more. Adam was an innocent, unfallen man up to the +temptation. Jesus was a virtuous unfallen man. The test with Him changed +innocence to virtue.</p> + +<p>In His experiences, His works, His temptations, His struggles, His +victories, Jesus was clearly human. In His ability to read men's thoughts +and know their lives without finding out by ordinary means, His knowledge +ahead of coming events, His knowledge of and control over nature, He +clearly was more than the human <i>we</i> know. Yet until we know more than we +seem to now of the proper powers of an unfallen man matured and growing +in the use and control of those powers we cannot draw here any line +between human and divine. But the whole presumption is in favor of +believing that in all of this Jesus was simply exercising the proper human +powers which with Him were not hurt by sin but ever increasing in use.</p> + +<p>Jesus insisted on living a simple true human life, dependent upon God and +upon others. He struck the key-note of this at the start in the +wilderness. Everything He taught He put through the test of use. He <i>was</i> +what He taught. As a man He has gone through all He calls us to. He blazed +the way into every thicket and woods, and then stands ahead, softly, +clearly calling, "Come along <i>after</i> Me."</p> + +<p>He was a normal man, God's pattern unchanged. All the powers of body and +mind and spirit were developed naturally and <i>held in poise</i>, no lack of +development, no over development of some part, no misuse of any power, nor +abuse, but each part perfectly fitting in and working naturally with each +other part.</p> + +<p>He experienced all the proper limitations of human life. He needed food +and sleep and rest and needed to give His body proper thought and care. He +was under the human limitations regarding space and material construction. +He got from one place to another by the slow process of using His strength +or joining it with nature or that of a beast. He entered a building +through an opening as we do. Both of these are in sharp contrast with the +conditions after the resurrection. His stock of knowledge came by the law +of increase, the natural way; some, and then more, and the more gaining +more yet.</p> + +<p>But there's more than this. There's a bit of a pull inside as one thinks +of this, as though Jesus in His <i>humanity</i> after all is on a level above +us, hardly alongside giving us a hand. Ah! there is more. He had +fellowship with us in the limitation that sin has brought. He shared the +experiences that men were actually having. He knew the bitterness of +having one's life plan utterly broken and something else--a rude jagged +something else--thrust in its place. But the bitterness of the experience +never got into His spirit or affected His conduct. The emergency He found +down here wrought by sin affected Him.</p> + +<p>He was <i>hungry</i> sometimes without food at hand to satisfy His hunger. He +always showed a peculiar tender sympathy with hungry people. He couldn't +bear the sight of the hungry crowds without food. He would go out of His +way any time to feed a man. He makes the caring for hungry folks a test +question for the judgment time. There's a great note of sympathy here with +the race. Every night hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters go +hungry to bed. It was said at one time that the death rate of London rises +and falls with the price of bread. If true when said it probably is more +intensely true to-day. Jesus ate the bread of the poor, the coarsest, +plainest bread. But then, that may have been simply His good common +sense.</p> + +<p>Jesus got <i>tired</i>. Could there be a closer touch! He fell asleep on a +pillow in the stern of the boat one day crossing the lake. And the sleep +was like that of a very tired man, so sound that the wild storm did not +wake Him up. It was His tiredness that made Him wait at Jacob's well while +the disciples push on to the village to get food. He wouldn't have asked +them to go if they were too tired, too. Was He ever <i>too</i> +tired--over-tired--like we get? I wonder. There was the temptation to be +so ever tugging. Probably not, for He was wise, and had good self-control, +<i>and</i> then He trusted His Father. Yet He probably went to the full limit +of what was wise. Certainly He lived a strenuous life those three and a +half years.</p> + +<p>Jesus knew <i>the pinch of poverty</i>. He was the eldest in a large family, +with the father probably dead, and so likely was the chief breadwinner, +earning for Himself and for the others a living by His trade. He was the +village carpenter up in Nazareth, an obscure country village. I do not +mean abject grinding poverty, of course. That cannot exist with frugality +and honest toil. But the pinch of constant management, rigid economy, +counting the coins carefully, studying to make both ends meet, and needing +to stretch a bit to get them together. It is not unlikely that house rent +was one of the items.</p> + +<p>The ceaselessness of His labors those public years suggests habits of +industry acquired during those long Nazareth years. He was used to working +hard and being kept busy. It would seem that He had the care of His mother +after the home was broken up. At the very end He makes provision for her. +John understands the allusion and takes her to his own home. He must have +thought a great deal of John to trust His mother to his care. Could there +be finer evidence of friendship than giving His friend John such a trust?</p> + +<p>Jesus was <i>a homeless man</i>. Forced from the home village by His fellow +townsmen, for those busy years he had no quiet home spot of His own to +rest in. And He felt it. How He would have enjoyed a home of His own, with +His mother in it with him! No more pathetic word comes from His lips than +that touching His homelessness--foxes have holes, and the birds of the air +nests, but the Son of Man hath neither hole nor nest, burrowed or built, +in ground or tree.</p> + +<p>And Jesus knew the sharp discipline of <i>waiting</i>. He knew what it meant to +be going a commonplace, humdrum, tread-mill round while the fires are +burning within for something else. He knew, and forever cast a sweet soft +halo over all such labor as men call drudgery, which never was such to Him +because of the fine spirit breathed into it. Drudgery, commonplaceness is +in the <i>spirit</i>, not the work. Nothing could be commonplace or humdrum +when done by One with such an uncommon spirit.</p> + + + +<h4>There's More of God Since Jesus Went Back.</h4> + + +<p>I have tried to think of Him coming into young manhood in that Nazareth +home. He is twenty now, with a daily round something like this: up at dawn +likely--He was ever an early riser--chores about the place, the cow, +maybe, and the kindling and fuel for the day, helping to care for the +younger children, then off down the narrow street, with a cheery word to +passers-by, to the little low-ceilinged carpenter shop, for--eight +hours?--more likely ten or twelve. Then back in the twilight; chores +again, the evening meal, helping the children of the home in difficulties +that have arisen to fill their day's small horizon, a bit of quiet talk +with His mother about family matters, maybe, then likely off to the +hilltop to look out at the stars and talk with the Father; then back +again, slipping quietly into the bedroom, sharing sleeping space in the +bed with a brother. And then the sweet rest of a laboring man until the +gray dawn broke again.</p> + +<p>And that not for one day, <i>every</i> day, a year of days--<i>years</i>. He's +twenty-five now, feeling the thews of his strength; twenty-seven, +twenty-nine, still the old daily round. Did no temptation come those years +to chafe a bit and fret and wonder and yearn after the great outside +world? Who that knows such a life, and knows the tempter, thinks <i>he</i> +missed those years, and their subtle opportunity? Who that knows Jesus +thinks that <i>He</i> missed such an opportunity to hallow forever, fragantly +hallow, home, with its unceasing round of detail, and to cushion, too, its +every detail with a sweet strong spirit? Who thinks <i>He</i> missed <i>that +chance</i> of fellowship with the great crowd of His race of brothers?</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "In the shop of Nazareth</div> +<div class="line"> Pungent cedar haunts the breath.</div> +<div class="line"> 'Tis a low Eastern room,</div> +<div class="line"> Windowless, touched with gloom.</div> +<div class="line"> Workman's bench and simple tools</div> +<div class="line"> Line the walls. Chests and stools,</div> +<div class="line"> Yoke of ox, and shaft of plow,</div> +<div class="line"> Finished by the Carpenter</div> +<div class="line"> Lie about the pavement now.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "In the room the Craftsman stands,</div> +<div class="line"> Stands and reaches out His hands.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Let the shadows veil His face</div> +<div class="line"> If you must, and dimly trace</div> +<div class="line"> His workman's tunic, girt with bands</div> +<div class="line"> At His waist. But His <i>hands</i>--</div> +<div class="line"> Let the light play on them;</div> +<div class="line"> Marks of toil lay on them.</div> +<div class="line"> Paint with passion and with care</div> +<div class="line"> Every old scar showing there</div> +<div class="line"> Where a tool slipped and hurt;</div> +<div class="line"> Show each callous; be alert</div> +<div class="line"> For each deep line of toil.</div> +<div class="line"> Show the soil</div> +<div class="line"> Of the pitch; and the strength</div> +<div class="line"> Grip of helve gives at length.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "When night comes, and I turn</div> +<div class="line"> From my shop where I earn</div> +<div class="line"> Daily bread, let me see</div> +<div class="line"> Those hard hands; know that He</div> +<div class="line"> Shared my lot, every bit:</div> +<div class="line"> Was a man, every whit.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Could I fear such a hand</div> +<div class="line"> Stretched toward me? Misunderstand</div> +<div class="line"> Or mistrust? Doubt that He</div> +<div class="line"> Meets me full in sympathy?</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Carpenter' hard like Thine</div> +<div class="line"> Is this hand--this of mine;</div> +<div class="line"> I reach out, gripping Thee,</div> +<div class="line"> Son of Man, close to me,</div> +<div class="line"> Close and fast, fearlessly."<sup><a href="#fn6">6</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>To-day up yonder on the throne <i>there's a Man</i>--kin to us, bone of our +bone, heart of our heart, toil of our toil. <i>He</i>--knows. If you'll listen +very quietly, you'll hear His voice reaching clear down to you saying, +with a softness that thrills, "Steady--steady--<i>I</i> know it all. I'm +watching and <i>feeling</i> and <i>helping</i>. Up yonder is the hill top and the +glory sun and the wondrous air. Steady a bit. Stay up with <i>Me</i> on the +glory side of your cloud, though your feet scratch the clay." Surely +there's more of God since Jesus went back!</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch06"> +<h3>The Divine Jesus</h3> + + + +<h4>Jehovah--Jesus.</h4> + + +<p>Of all the men who knew Jesus intimately John stands first and highest. He +misunderstood for a time. He failed to understand, as did the others. He +did not approach the keen insight into Jesus' being and purpose that Mary +of Bethany did. But, then, she was a woman. He was a man. Other things +being equal (though they almost never are), woman has keener insight into +the spirit and motives than has man. But John stood closer to Jesus than +any other. Jesus drew him closer. And that speaks volumes for John's +fineness of spirit. He alone of the inner twelve did not forsake in the +hardest hour that Thursday night, but went in "<i>with</i> Jesus." How grateful +must Jesus have been for the presence of His sympathetic friend that black +night, with its long intense shadows!</p> + +<p>Now John writes about Jesus. And what this closest friend says will be of +intensest interest to all lovers of Jesus. But it is of even intenser +interest to note keenly <i>when</i> John writes. He waits until the end. He +gets the longest range on Jesus that his lengthening years will permit. +Distance is essential to perspective. You must get far away from a big +thing to see it. The bigger the thing to be seen, the longer the distance +needed for good perspective. John shows his early appreciation of the size +of Jesus by waiting so long. When all his mental faculties are most +matured, when any heat of mere youthful attachment has cooled off, when +the eye of the spirit is clearest and keenest, when the facts through long +sifting have fallen into right place and relation in the whole circle of +truth, then the old man settles to his loving task.</p> + +<p>He had been <i>looking</i> long. His perspective has steadily lengthened with +the looking years. The object has been getting bigger and bigger to his +eyes. He is getting off as far as possible within his earthly span. At +last he feels that he has approximately gotten the range. And with the +deep glow of his heart gleaming up out of his eyes, he picks up a +freshly-sharpened quill <i>to tell folk about Jesus</i>.</p> + +<p>As he starts in he takes a fresh, long, earnest look. And so he writes, +like a portrait artist working, with his eyes ever gazing at the vision of +that glorified Face. He seems to say to himself, "How <i>shall</i> I--how <i>can</i> +I ever <i>begin</i> to tell them--about <i>Him</i>!" Then with a master's skill he +sets out to find the simplest words he can find, put together in the +simplest sentences he can make, so simple folk everywhere may read and get +something of a glimpse of this Jesus, whose glory is filling his eyes and +flooding his face and spilling out all over the pages as he writes.</p> + +<p>He is seeing back so far that he is getting beyond human reach. So he +fastens his line into the farthest of the far-reaches of human knowledge, +the creation, and then flings the line a bit farther back yet. He must use +a human word, if human folk are to understand. So he says "<i>beginning</i>." +"In the beginning," the beginningless beginning, away back of the Genesis +beginning, the earliest known to man.</p> + +<p>Then he recalls the tremendous fact that when, in the later beginning man +knew about, the worlds came into existence, it was by a <i>word</i> being +spoken, a <i>creative, outspoken word</i>. The power that created things +revealed itself in a few simple words. Then he searches into the depths of +language for the richest word he knew to express thought outspoken. And +taking that word he uses it as a <i>name</i> for this One of whom he is trying +to tell. The scholars seem unable to sound the depths of the word that +John in his own language uses. It means this, and beyond that, it means +<i>this</i>, deeper yet, and then <i>this</i>. And then all of these together, and +more. That is John's word. "In the beginning was <i>the Word</i>."</p> + +<p>Then with a few swift touches of his pen he says, "This was Jesus before +He came among men, the man Jesus whom we know." In the earliest beginning +the whole heart and thought of God toward man was outspoken in a person. +This person, this outspeaking God, it was He who later became known to us +as Jesus. Jesus, away back before the farthest reach of our human +knowledge, was God speaking out of His inner heart to us. This Jesus <i>is</i> +God speaking out His innermost heart to man. Did you ever long to hear God +speak? Look at Jesus. He's God's speech. This One was <i>with</i> God. He <i>was</i> +God. It was <i>He</i> who spoke things into being, that creative span of time. +Only through Him <i>could</i> anything come into being. All life was in Him, +and this life was man's light. It is He who came into our midst, shining +in the darkness that could neither take Him in nor hold Him down from +shining out.</p> + +<p>Every now and then as he writes John's heart seems near the breaking +point, and a sob shakes his pen a bit, as it comes over him all anew, and +almost overcomes him, how this wondrous Jesus, this throbbing heart of +God, was treated. Listen: "He came to His <i>own possessions</i>, and they who +were His--own--kinsfolk--and the quiver of John's heart-sob seems to make +the type move on the page--<i>His own kinsfolk</i> received him not into their +homes, but left Him outside in the cold night; <i>but</i>--a glimpse of that +glorious Face steadies him again--as many as <i>did</i> receive Him, whether +His own kinsfolk or not, to them He gave the right to become <i>kinsfolk of +God</i>, the oldest family of all."</p> + + + +<h4>God's Spokesman.</h4> + + +<p>John has a way of reaching away back, and then by a swift use of pen +coming quickly to his own time, and then he keeps swinging back over the +ground he has been over, but each time with some added touch, like the +true artist he is.</p> + +<p>John's statement, "the world was made by Him," takes one back at once to +the early Genesis chapters. There the creating One, who, by a word, brings +things into existence is called God. And then, that we may identify Him, +is called by a <i>name</i>, Jehovah. The creator is God named Jehovah. And this +Jehovah, John says, was the One who afterward became a Man, and pitched +His tent among men. And as one reads the old chapters through, this is the +God, the Jehovah, who appears in varying ways to these Old Testament men, +one after another. He talked and walked and worked with Adam in completing +the work of creation, and then broken-hearted led him out of the forfeited +garden.</p> + +<p>Then to make his standpoint unmistakably plain to every one, before +starting in on the witness borne by the herald, he makes a summary. All +that he has been saying he now sums up in these tremendous words, +"<i>God</i>--no one ever yet has seen; the only begotten God,<sup><a href="#fn7">7</a></sup> in the bosom +of the Father, this One has been the spokesman." In what He <i>was</i>, and in +what He <i>did</i> as well as in what He <i>said</i>, He hath been the spokesman. +Here is a difference made between the Father God, whom no one has seen, +and the only begotten God, who has been telling the Father out.</p> + +<p>Now God revealed Himself to men in the Old Testament times. Repeatedly in +the Old Testament it distinctly speaks of men seeing God in varying ways +and talking with Him. Adam walked with Him, and Enoch, and Noah. Abraham +had a <i>vision</i>, and talked with the three men whose spokesman speaks as +God. Isaac has a night-vision and Jacob a dream and a night meeting with a +mysterious wrestler. Moses <i>spoke</i> with Him "face to face" and "mouth to +mouth," and is said to have seen His "form." Yet after that first forty +days on the mount when Moses hungrily asks for more, He is told that no +man could endure the sight of that great glory of God's face. And he is +put in to a cleft of the rock, and God's hand put over the opening (in the +simple language of the record), and then only the <i>hinder</i> part of God +passing is seen, while the wondrous voice speaks. Yet the impression so +made upon Moses far exceeds anything previous and completely overawes and +melts him down. The elders of Israel "saw God," yet the most <i>distinct</i> +impression of anything seen is of the beautiful <i>pavement under His feet</i>. +Isaiah's most definite impression, when the great vision came to him, was +of a train of glory, seraphim and smoke and a voice. Ezekiel has rare +power in detailed description. He has overpowering visions of the "glory of +Jehovah." Yet the most definite that he can make the description is a +storm gathering, a cloud, a fire, a centre spot of brightness, a clearness +as of amber, and four very unusual living creatures.</p> + +<p>These men "saw" God. He "appeared" to them. Evidently that means many +different things, yet the word is always honestly used. It never means as +we gaze into another man's face. But always there is that profound +impression of having been in God's own presence. They <i>met</i> Him. They +<i>saw</i> Him. They heard His voice.</p> + +<p>Yet John says here, "<i>God</i>--no one ever yet at any time has seen; the only +begotten God, in the bosom of the Father--this One has been the +spokesman." Clearly John, sweeping the whole range of past time, means +this: they saw Him whom we call Jesus. Jesus is Jehovah, the only +<i>begotten</i> God. To all these men the only begotten God was the spokesman +of the Father.</p> + +<p>Sometimes it was a voice that came with softness but unmistakable +clearness to the inner spirit of man, a soundless voice. Sometimes in a +dream, a more realistic vision of the night or of the day time; again, in +the form of a man, thus foreshadowing the future great coming. This One +who <i>came</i> to them in various ways, this Jehovah has <i>come</i> to men as +Jesus. This is John's statement. This is the setting of His gospel. The +setting becomes a part of the interpretation of what the gospel contains. +It explains what this that follows <i>meant to John</i>.</p> + +<p>Is it surprising that John's Gospel has been pitched upon as the critics' +chief battle-field of the New Testament? Battle-field is a good word. The +fire has been thick and fast, needle-guns--sharp needles--and +machine-guns--Gatling guns and rattling--but no smokeless powder. The +cloud of smoke of a beautiful scholarly gray tinge has quite filled the +air. Men have been swinging away from a man, the Man to a book. But no +critic's delicately shaded and shadowing cloud of either dust or smoke, or +both, can hide away the Man. He's too tall and big. The simple hearted man +who will step aside from the smoke and noise to the shade of a quiet tree, +or the quiet of some corner, with this marvellous bit of manuscript from +John's pen for his keen, Spirit-cleared eye, will be enraptured to find a +<i>Man, the</i> Man, the <i>God</i>-Man.</p> + + + +<h4>Whom Moses Saw.</h4> + + +<p>What did Jesus say about Himself? The critics of the world, including the +skeptical, infidel critics, seem to agree fully and easily on a few things +about this Jesus on whose dissection they have expended so much time and +strength. They agree that in the purity of His life, the moral power of +His character, the wisdom of His teachings, the rare poise of His conduct +and judgment, the influence exerted upon men, He clear over-tops the whole +race. Surely His own opinion of Himself is well worth having. And it is +easy to get, and tremendous when gotten. It fits into John's conception +with unlabored simplicity and naturalness.</p> + +<p>According, then, to Jesus' own words, He had come down out of heaven, and, +by and by, would go back again to where He was before. He had come on an +errand for the Father down into the world, and when the errand was +finished He would go back home to the Father again. He had seen the +Father, and He was the only one who <i>had</i> ever seen Him. He was the Son of +God in a sense that nobody else was, a begotten Son, and the only Son who +had been begotten. Therefore He naturally called God His Father, and not +only that, but His <i>own</i> Father, making Himself <i>equal</i> with the Father.</p> + +<p>This statement it was that swung the leaders over from silent contempt to +aggression in their treatment of Him. The Jews understood this perfectly +and instantly. They refused to accept it. Reckoning it blasphemous, they +attempted to stone Him. They were partly right. If it were not true, it +<i>was</i> blasphemous, and their law required stoning. Yet they were fools in +their thought, and not even keen fools. For no blasphemous man could have +revealed the character and moral glory that Jesus constantly revealed +before their eyes.</p> + +<p>Then follows one of John's exquisite reports of Jesus' words in reply. In +it run side by side the essential unity of spirit between Father and Son, +with the absolute life-giving or creative power invested in the Son. A +sweet, loving, loyal unity of spirit is between the two. It is love unity. +There can be none closer. In this unity the Son has full control of life +for all the race of men, and final adjustment of the character wrought out +by each. At His word all who have gone down under death's touch will come +into life again, and each by the character he has developed will go by a +moral gravitation to his natural place.</p> + +<p>And then follows the bringing forward of witnesses, John, the Father, the +works, the Scriptures, and the climax is reached in the one whose name was +ever on their lips--Moses. And this is the significant reference to Moses, +"He wrote of <i>Me</i>." Sift into that phrase a bit. It cannot mean, he wrote +of me in the sacrifices provided for with such minute care. For Moses +clearly had had no such thought. It might be supposed to mean that +unconsciously to himself there was, in his writings about the sacrifices, +that which would be seen later to refer to Jesus in His dying. And there +is the resemblance in purity between Moses' sacrifices and the great +Sacrifice. Yet where there is so much plain meaning lying out on the face +of the thing, this obscure meaning may be dropped or checked in as an +incidental. There is a single allusion in Moses' writing to a prophet +coming like himself.</p> + +<p>But Moses is ever absorbed in writing about a wondrous One who revealed +Himself to him in the burning bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, the +little peaked tent off by itself on the outskirts of the camp, and the +soft distinct voice. There was the One with whom He had twice spent forty +days in the mount, and whose great glory left its traces in his face. Ever +Moses is writing of this wondrous Jehovah. Jesus quietly says, "He wrote +of <i>Me</i>."</p> + +<p>Another time He said, "I and the Father are one," provoking another +stoning. Invisibly holding back their hands He said, "The Father is in Me, +and I in the Father," and again they are aroused. In connection with this +word "Father," it may be noted that the Old Testament has been called the +"dispensation of the Father." But this seems scarcely accurate. God +speaking, appearing there is spoken of as Father very rarely, and then +chiefly in the great promises of the future glory. The common name for Him +is <i>Jehovah</i>. Jesus practically gives us the name Father for God. He +constantly refers to God as <i>His</i> Father. It was He who taught us to call +God Father. He never speaks of Jehovah, but of the Father. His language in +this always fits in perfectly, as of course it would, with John's +standpoint, that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament times. A little +later Jesus says, "Moses gave you not the manna from heaven, but--my +Father giveth (note the change in the time element of the word)--giv<i>eth</i> +you the true bread." It is a sort of broken, readjusted sentence, as +though He was going to say who it was that gave the manna, and then +changes to speaking of the Father and the present. He does not say who it +was that <i>did</i> give that manna. It is plain enough from John's standpoint +what <i>he</i> understands Jesus to mean as he puts the incident into his +story.</p> + + + +<h4>Jesus is God Wooing Man.</h4> + + +<p>During the autumn before His death, while in attendance on one of the +Jerusalem feasts, the leaders are boasting of their direct descent from +Abraham, and attacking Jesus. On their part the quarrel of words gets very +bitter. They ask sharply, "Who do you pretend to be? Nobody can be as +great as Abraham; yet your words suggest that you think you are." Then +came from Jesus' lips the words, spoken in all probability very quietly, +"Your father Abraham exulted that he might see my day, and he saw it, and +was glad." It is a tremendous statement, staggering to one who has not yet +grasped it.</p> + +<p>In attempting to find its meaning, some of our writing friends have +supposed it means that, after Abraham's death, when he was in the other +world, at the time of Jesus being on the earth, he was conscious of Jesus +having come and was glad. But this hardly seems likely, else it would +read, "He <i>sees</i>, and <i>is</i> glad." The seeing and gladness were both in a +day gone by. Others have supposed that it refers to the scene on Moriah's +top, when the ram used as a sacrifice instead of Isaac enabled Abraham to +see ahead <i>by faith</i>, not actually, the coming One. But this, too, seems a +bit far-fetched, because Abraham was surprised by the occurrences of that +day. He fully expected to sacrifice his son, apparently, so there could be +no exultant looking forward to <i>that</i> day for him. And deeper yet, the +coming One was not expected to be a sacrifice, but a king.</p> + +<p>The natural meaning seems to lie back in Abraham's own life. Abraham was +Israel's link with the idolatrous heathen, as well as the beginning of the +new life away from idolatry. He grew up among an idolatrous people, yet in +his heart there was a yearning for the true God. Back in his old home +there came to him one day the definite inner voice to cut loose from these +people, his own dear kinsfolk, and go out to a strange unknown land, with +what seemed an indefinite goal, and there would come to him a vision of +the true God.</p> + +<p>It was a radical step for a man of seventy-five years to take. He was +living among his own kinsfolk. His nest was feathered. It meant leaving a +certainty for an uncertainty. It meant breaking his habit of life, a very +hard thing to do, and starting out on a wandering roaming life. Not +unlikely his neighbors thought it a queer thing, a wild goose chase, this +going off to a strange land in response to a call of God that he might see +a vision of the true God. Decidedly visionary. But the old man was clear +about the voice. The fire burned within to know God, the real true God. +All else counted as nothing against that. He would <i>see God</i>. And a +warming glow filled his heart and shone in his eyes and kept him steady +during the break, the good-byes, the start away, the journeying among +strangers. Into the strange land he came, and pitched his tent. And--one +night--in his tent--among these strange Canaanites, there came the +promised vision. "Jehovah appeared unto Abraham," and tied up there anew +with him the promise made back in his native land. This seems to be the +simple explanation of these words about Abraham. "He exulted that he might +see my day. He <i>saw</i> ... and was glad."</p> + +<p>With a contemptuous curl of the lip instantly they come back with: "Thou +art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" More quietly +than ever, with the calmness of conscious truth, come those tremendous +words, emphasized with the strongest phrase He ever used, "Verily, verily, +I say unto you, before Abraham was born, I am." The common version omits +"born," and so the sharp contrast is not made clear. Abraham was <i>born</i>. +He came into existence. Jesus says "I <i>am</i>." That "I am" is meant to mean +absolute existence. An eternal now without beginning or ending. Their +Jewish ears are instantly caught by that short sentence. Jesus was +identifying Himself with the One who uttered that sentence out of the +burning bush! Again stones for speech. Again the invisible power holds +their feverish impotent hands. That "I am" explains the meaning of the +expression "my day." It stretches it out backward beyond Abraham's day. It +lengthens it infinitely at both ends.</p> + +<p>This is Jesus' point of view, this marvellous Jesus. He is the Jehovah in +Genesis' first chapters. It is with Him that Adam broke tryst that day, +and with Him that Enoch renewed the tryst after such a long wait, and took +those long walks. It is His voice and presence in the black topped, +flaming mount that awed the Israel crowd so. His voice it was that won and +impressed so winsomely the man waiting in the hand-covered cleft of the +rock that early morning, and long after, that other rugged, footsore man, +standing with face covered in the mouth of a cave. Isaiah saw <i>His</i> glory +that memorable day in the temple. It was He who rode upon the storm before +Ezekiel's wondering eyes and who walks with His faithful ones on the seven +times heated coals, and reveals to Daniel's opened ears the vision of his +people's future. Jehovah--He comes as Jesus. Jesus--He is Jehovah. No +sending of messengers for this great work of winning His darling back to +the original image and mastery and dominion will do for our God. He comes +Himself. Jesus is God coming down to woo man up to Himself again.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch07"> +<h3>The Winsome Jesus</h3> + + + +<h4>The Face of Jesus</h4> + + +<p>Jesus was God letting man see the beauty of His face and listen to the +music of His voice, and feel the irresistibly gentle drawing power of His +presence. Jesus was very winsome. He <i>drew</i> men. He said that if He were +lifted up He <i>would</i> draw men. They who heard that could believe it, for +He drew them before He was lifted up. He drew the <i>crowds</i>. Yet many a +leader that has drawn the crowds has led them astray. He drew <i>men</i>--men +of strongest mentality, scholarly, cultured, thoughtful men, and every +other sort. Yet men have often been befooled in their leaders. He drew +<i>women</i>. Here is a great test. Men may be deceived in a man. But woman, +true strong woman, pure womanly woman, because of her keen discernment +into spirit and motive, cannot be deceived, when true to her inner +conviction.</p> + +<p>He drew <i>children</i>. This was the highest test. The child, fresh from the +hand of God, before it is appreciably hurt by parents or surroundings, is +drawn to the pure and good. They are repelled by selfishness and badness. +They draw out the best. They are drawn only by the true and beautiful and +good. That is, in the early years, before the warping of a selfish, sinful +atmosphere has hurt them. This is an infallible test. This told most His +winsomeness.</p> + +<p><i>Bad people</i> were drawn to Him. That is, bad in their lives. Rarely indeed +is a human so wholly bad as to be untouched by true goodness, by sincere +love. Here is the touchstone of service. He touched that spot in the +lowest, and by His presence increased the hunger of their hearts for +purity and for sympathy up toward purity.</p> + +<p>His <i>enemies</i>--a very small group, but in a position of great power, +holding the national reins--His enemies were drawn to Him, by a drawing +they fought, but could not resist. They admired Him while hating Him. His +presence disturbed because it accused the opposite in them. They +recognized the purity, the love, the rugged honesty, the keen insight, the +poised wisdom, and they hated Him the more intensely, so committed were +they in the practice of their lives to the opposite of these. Jesus was +very winsome. It was to be expected of Him, for He was a <i>man</i> unstained +and unhurt by sin. Man, God's sort of man, is winsome, for he is in the +image of God. It was to be expected of Him, for He was God. And God is +winsome. Did men but <i>know</i> God they would throw themselves at His feet in +the utter abandon of strong love.</p> + +<p>Jesus' <i>personality</i> must have been very attractive, because of the man +living within. He found expression in it. The spirit of a man finds +expression in his presence. He goes out to others through his presence. +From what we know of Jesus His presence must have had something distinctly +impressive about it. He would have a gently majestic bearing. He walked +upright like the king He was. He had the true dignity that is not +conscious of its dignity.</p> + +<p>Jesus must have had a remarkable <i>face</i>. One's presence centers peculiarly +in the face. It comes to bear the imprint of the man inside. A man cannot +keep out of his face the dominant spirit of his life. The sin of the life, +the purity of the heart, is always stamped on the face. The finer the +nature the plainer is the facial index. That is the reason women's faces +reveal the inner spirit more than men's. Quite apart from His features, +the inner spirit of Jesus must have made His face beautiful with a manly +fascinating beauty. Yet in all likelihood those features were finely +chiselled and the skin clear, and with the transfiguring power of the +spirit within, that face must have been a great face in its beauty.</p> + +<p>Jesus' face must have borne the impress of His experiences. The early home +experience would bring out patience and simplicity and sympathy. Those +forty days in the wilderness would intensify the purity and strength, and +bring evidence of struggle and of victory. The Jordan waters, with the +voice of approval, would deepen the mark of peace. Constant contact with +the sick and suffering would bring out yet more the tenderness and +gentleness. Constant teaching of undisciplined folk would intensify the +patience. Constant contact with sin would intensify the unflinching +sternness of purity. The Transfiguration would deepen the spirituality, +with possibly an added glory-touch. Gethsemane wrote in the deep lines of +intense suffering, with the intangible spirituality of victory and great +peace. And, at the last, Calvary with its scars marked in a beauty of +suffering and of spirituality refined beyond description. A marvellous +face that human face of Jesus.</p> + +<p><i>Indeed</i>, the glory of God was in the face of Jesus as He walked quietly +among men. Looking into that face men saw God. That simple, gentle, +patient, pure face, with its deep peace and victory and yet its +yearning--that was God looking out into men's faces.</p> + + + +<h4>The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus.</h4> + + +<p>The face of that face was the <i>eye</i>. The eye is the soul of the face. +Through it the man looks out and shows himself. Through it we look in and +see him. Where the fires of self-ambition burn the flame is always in the +eye. Only where those fires are out or never lit does the real +beauty-light of God come into the eye. Great leaders have ever been noted +for their eyes, before whose glance strong men have cowed and quailed, or +eagerly coveted the privilege of service.</p> + +<p>Those must have been matchless eyes of Jesus, keen, kindly, flashing out +blinding lightning, sending out softest subdued light. The Nazareth mob +couldn't stand the look of those eyes, nor the bolder Jerusalem mob +reaching down for the stones, nor the deputation sent to arrest, nor even +the reckless Roman soldiers at the garden gate. The disciples who were +closest sometimes followed him afraid and amazed because of the look of +those eyes. And yet the little children put their arms around His neck, +and looked up fearlessly and lovingly. And the crowd listened by the hour +with their eyes fastened upon His.</p> + +<p>The <i>voice</i> of Jesus must have been music itself. It speaks once of His +singing a hymn. How we would all have loved to hear Him sing! But that +voice was music at all times, whether in song or speech. Low, modulated, +rhythmic, gentle, rich, resonant--wondrous music. Those who have heard +Spurgeon and Gladstone almost always speak of the rare musical quality in +their voices. So, and more would it be with this Jesus. It has been said +that the personality reveals itself in the speech. It reveals itself yet +more, and more subtly, in the sound of the voice. The power or weakness of +a man is felt in the sound of his voice. The blind have unusual skill in +reading character in the voice. Were we wiser we could read men's +character much more quickly in the voice. Children and animals do. The +voice that stilled the waves and spoke forgiveness of sins, that drew the +babes, and talked out to thousands at once, must have been full of +sweetest music and thrilling with richest power.</p> + +<p>Jesus made much of the personal <i>touch</i>, another means whereby a man's +power goes out to his fellow. He believed in close personal touch. He drew +men into close contact with Himself. He promised that when gone Himself, +Somebody else was to come, and live as He had done right with us in close +touch. He touched those whom He helped, regardless of conditions. There +was power in His touch. Some of Himself went out through that touch of +His. The fever, the weakness, the disease fled before His touch.</p> + +<p>Is it to be wondered at that everywhere, in the temple yards, on Judean +hills or Galilean, by the blue waters of Galilee or the brown waters of +the Jordan, men crowded to Jesus? They couldn't help it. He was +irresistible in His presence, His face, His eye, and voice and touch. It +could not be otherwise. He was God on a wooing errand after man. Moses' +request of Jehovah, "Show me ... Thy glory," was being granted now to the +whole nation. In Jesus they were gazing on the glory of God. A veiled +glory? Yes, much veiled, doubtless, yet not as much as when Moses looked +and listened.</p> + +<p>Jesus <i>draws</i> men. All classes, all nations, all peoples are drawn to Him. +It is remarkable how all classes in Christendom quote Jesus, and claim Him +as the leader of their own particular views. They will selfishly claim Him +who will not follow Him.</p> + +<p>Jesus draws <i>us</i>. Let us each yield to His drawing. That is the sincerest +homage and honor we can give Him. That will draw out in us to fullest +measure the original God-likeness obscured by sin.</p> + +<p>Let us lift this drawing Jesus <i>up</i> by our lives of loyalty to Him, by our +modest, earnest testimony for Him, by our unselfish love for the men He +loved so. <i>Up</i> let us lift Him before men's eyes; <i>up</i> on the cross, +transfigured by His love; <i>up</i> on the Olives' Mount, Victor over all the +forces of sin and death; <i>up</i> at the Father's right hand in glory, waiting +the fullness of time for the completion of His plan for man.</p> + +<p>Thou great winsome God, we have seen Thy beauty in this Jesus. We have +heard Thy music in His voice. We feel the strong pull upon our hearts and +wills of Thy presence in Him. We cannot resist Thee if we would. We would +not if we could. We are coming a-running to keep tryst with Thee under the +tree of life thou art planting down in our midst. We will throw ourselves +at Thy feet in the utter abandon of our strongest love, Thy volunteer +slaves.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="part" id="part3"> +<h2>III. The Great Experiences of Jesus' Life</h2> + + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch08">The Jordan: The Decisive Start.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch09">The Wilderness: Temptation.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch10">The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch11">Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch12">Calvary: Victory.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch13">The Resurrection: Gravity Upward.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch14">The Ascension: Back Home Again Until----</a></li> +</ol> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch08"> +<h3>The Jordan: The Decisive Start</h3> + + + +<h4>The Anvil of Experience.</h4> + + +<p>Experience is going through a thing <i>yourself</i>, and having it go <i>through</i> +you. And "through" here means not as a spear is thrust through a man's +body, piercing it, but as fire goes through that which it takes hold of, +permeating; as an odor goes through a house, pervading it.</p> + +<p>A man <i>knows</i> only what he experiences; what he goes through; what goes +through him. He knows only what he is <i>certain</i> of. And he is certain of +only that which he <i>experiences</i>.</p> + +<p>It is one of the natural limitations of our humanity that it is so. Even +the primary knowledge of space, and time, and so on comes in this way. A +man knows space only by seeing or thinking through space. He knows time +only by living consciously through some moments of time. Such knowledge is +primary only in point of time.</p> + +<p>Experience is weaving fact into the fabric of your life. The swift drive +of the double-pointed shuttle, the hard push of the loom back and forth +<i>goes through you</i>.</p> + +<p>Experience is sowing truth in actual personal occurrences. The cutting, +upturning edge of the plow, the tearing teeth of the harrow, go on inside +your very being, while perhaps the moments drag themselves by, slow as +snails.</p> + +<p>Experience is hammering truth into shape upon the anvil of your life, +while the pounding of the lightning trip-hammer is upon your own quivering +flesh. It is seeing that which is most precious to you, so dear as to be +your very life, seeing that in a furnace, seven times heated, while you, +standing helplessly by, hope and trust perhaps, and yet <i>wonder</i>, even +while trusting, wonder <i>if</i>--(shall I say it the way your heart talks it +out within?), or, at most, wonderingly watch with heart almost stopped, +and eyes big, to see <i>if</i> the form of the Fourth will intervene in <i>your</i> +case, or whether something else is the Father's will.</p> + +<p>Experience is the three young Hebrews stepping with quiet, full, +heel-to-toe tread into the hotly flaming furnace, not sure but it meant +torture and death, only sure that it was the only right thing to do. It is +the old Babylonian premier actually lowering nearer and nearer to those +green eyes, and yawning jaws, and ivories polished on many a bone, clear +of duty though not clear of anything else.</p> + +<p>A man having a financial understanding with his church, or a contract with +his employer, or a comfortable business, may be an earnest Christian, +living a life of prayer and realizing God's power in his life, but he +cannot know the meaning of the word <i>trust</i> as George Mueller knew it +when he might waken in the morning with not enough food in hand for the +breakfast, only an hour off, of the two thousand orphans under his care, +and in answer to his waiting prayer have them all satisfied at the usual +breakfast hour. George Mueller himself did not know the meaning of "trust" +before such experiences as he did afterwards. No one can. We <i>know</i> only +what we <i>experience</i>.</p> + +<p>Now Jesus became a perfect man by means of the experiences He went +through. He is an older <i>Brother</i> to us, for He has gone through ahead +where we are now going, and where we are yet to go. He was perfectly human +in this, that He did not know our human experiences, save as He Himself +went through those experiences. With full reverence be it said of the +divine Jesus, it was necessarily so, because He was so truly human.</p> + +<p>The whole diapason of human experience, with its joyous majors and its +sobbing minors, He knew. Except, of course, the experiences growing out of +sin. These He could not know. They belong to the abnormal side of life. +And there was nothing abnormal about Him. It was fitting that Jesus, +coming as a man to save brother men, should develop the full human +character through experience. And so He did. And forever He has a +fellow-feeling with each of us, at every point, for He Himself has <i>felt +our feelings</i>.</p> + +<p>Jesus' experiences brought Him suffering; keen, cutting pain; real +suffering. Where there is possible danger or pain in an approaching +experience there is <i>shrinking</i>. It is a normal human trait to shrink from +pain and danger. Jesus' experiences in the suffering they brought to Him +far outreach what any other human has known. He shrank in spirit over and +over again as the expected experiences approached. He shrank back as none +other ever has, for He was more keenly alive to the suffering involved. He +suffered doubly: in the shrinking beforehand; in the actual experience.</p> + +<p>But, be it keenly remembered, shrinking does not mean <i>faltering</i>. Neither +suffering in anticipation nor actually ever held Him back for a moment, +nor an inch's length, nor in the spirit of full-tilted obedience to His +Father's plan. This makes Jesus' experiences the greatest revealers of His +character. He was sublime in His character, His teachings, His stupendous +conceptions. He was most sublime in that wherein He touches us most +closely--His experiences.</p> + +<p>With a new, deep meaning it can be said, knowledge is power. We humans +enter into knowledge and so into power only through experience. +Experiences are sent, or when not directly sent are allowed to come, that +through these may come knowledge, through knowledge power, through both +the likeness of God, and so, true service in helping men back to God.</p> + +<p>Let us, you and I, go through our experiences <i>graciously</i>, not +grudgingly, not balking, cheerily, aye, with a bit of joy in the voice and +a gleam of light in the eye. And remember, and not forget, that alongside +is One who <i>knows</i> the experience that just now is ours, and, knowing, +sympathizes.</p> + +<p>There were with Jesus the commoner experiences and the great outstanding +ones: the mountain range with the foot-hills below and the towering peaks +above. From His earliest consciousness until the cross was reached, Jesus +ran the whole gamut of human experiences common to us all, with some +greater ones, which are the same as come to all men, but with Him +intensified clear beyond our measurements.</p> + +<p>These greater experiences were tragic until the great tragedy was past. +Each has in it the shadow of the greatest. The Jordan waters meant turning +from a kingdom down another path to a cross. The Wilderness fight pointed +clearly to successive struggles, and the greatest. The Transfiguration +mount meant turning from the greatest glory of His divinity which any +earthly eye had seen to the little hill of death, which was to loom above +the mount. Gethsemane is Calvary in anticipation. Calvary was <i>the</i> +tragedy when love yielded to hate and, yielding, conquered. There love +held hate's climax, death, by the throat, extracted the sting, drew the +fang tooth, and drained the poison sac underneath. Love's surgery.</p> + +<p>And the tinge of the tragedy remains in the Resurrection and Ascension in +lingering scars. They are still in that face. It is a scale ascending +from the first. In each is seen the one thing from a different angle. The +cross in advance is in each experience, growing in intensity till itself +is reached, and casting its shadow as it is left behind.</p> + + + +<h4>Our Brother.</h4> + + +<p>Through the crowds at the Jordan River, there quietly walked one morning a +Man who came up to where John stood. He took a place in the line of those +waiting to be baptized, so indicating His own intention. John is absorbed +in his work, but as he faces this Man, next in order, he is startled. This +is no ordinary man. That face! Its wondrous purity! That intangible +something revealing the man! That spirit looking through those eyes into +his own! In that presence he feels his own impurity. It is the instant +unpremeditated recognition by this fine-grained Spirit-taught John of his +Master, his Chief. The remonstrance that instinctively springs to his lips +is held in check by the obedience he at once feels is due this One. +Whatever <i>He</i> commands is right, however unexpected it may be, or however +strange it may seem.</p> + +<p>Why did Jesus go to John for baptism? The rite was a purifying one. It +meant confession of sin, need of cleansing, a desire for cleansing, a +purpose to turn from wrong and sin and lead a new life. How <i>could</i> Jesus +accept such a rite for Himself? Why did He? Read in the light of the whole +story of Jesus the answer seems simple. Jesus was stepping down into the +ranks of man as His <i>Brother</i>. The kingdom He was to establish among men +was to be set up and ruled over by man's Brother. The salvation was to be +by One, close up, alongside. The King will brush elbows with His subjects, +for they are brothers too. No long-range work for Jesus, but personal +touch.</p> + +<p>In accepting John's baptism, Jesus was allying Himself with the race of +men He had come to lead up, and out, as King. He was allying Himself with +them <i>where they were</i>. It was not the path always trodden by man in +climbing to a throne. But it was the true path of fellowship with them in +their needs. He was getting hold of hands, that He might be their leader +up to the highlands of a new life. He steps to their level. He would lift +from below. He would get by the side of the man lowest down. It was clear +evidence at the start that He was the true Messiah, the King. He was their +<i>Brother</i>. He would get down alongside, and pull up with them side by side +out of the ditch of sticky mud up to good footing.</p> + +<p>And mark keenly--and the heart glows a bit at the thought--the point He +chooses for getting into that contact with His brothers. It is <i>the point +where they are turning from sin</i>. John's baptism meant turning from sin. +It is at that point that Jesus comes forward. A man can always be +live-sure of Jesus meeting him there, close up, with outstretched hand. He +is waiting eagerly, and steps up quickly to a man's side as in his heart +he turns from sin.</p> + +<p>But there's more yet. Read in the after light cast upon it there is much +more. This was the voluntary path away from the kingdom. It was the +beginning of all that came after. The road up the hill of the cross not +far away led out of those waters. This was the starting point. Jesus +calmly turned His face for the time being--a long time it has proved--away +from the promised Kingdom of His Father and toward the planned cross of +Satan.</p> + +<p>It meant much, for it was the <i>first step</i> into the path marked out. What +the Father had chosen for Him, He now chooses out for Himself. So every +bit of service, every plan, must be <i>twice chosen:</i> by God for a man; by +the man for himself as from God. He entered eagerly, for this was His +Father's plan. That itself was enough for Jesus. But, too, it was the path +where His needy brothers were. That would quicken His pace. It was the +road wherein He would meet the <i>enemy</i>. And with a fresh prayer in His +heart and a quiet confidence in His eye He steps into the road with that +calmness that strong purpose gives.</p> + +<p>As it proved there was danger here for Him. This was not the way approved +by man's established ideals for starting a kingdom. He was driving +straight across the carefully marked out roads of man's usage. He was +disregarding the "No trespassing" signs. There was danger here. A man +cutting a new path right across old ones meets stubborn undergrowth, and +ugly thorn hedges. Jesus struck the thorns early, and right along to the +last getting sharper. And they tore His face badly, as He cut the way +through for His brothers.</p> + +<p>Yes, there were dangers as He pushed His way through the undergrowth down +to the water. Poison ivy thick, and fanged snakes darting guiltily aside +from fear even while wanting to strike in, tangled, gnarly roots hugging +the ground close, and bad odors and gases, and the light obscured--dangers +thick! And these Jordan waters prove chill and roily. His stepping in +stirs the mud. The storm winds sweep down the valley. A bit of a hill up +above to the west casts a long sinister shadow out over the water.</p> + +<p>And He must have known the dangers. No need of supernatural knowledge +here. His familiarity with David and Jeremiah and other Hebrew writers, +His knowledge of human nature as it had grown to be, His knowledge of a +foe subtler than human, the fine sensitiveness of His finely organized +sensitive spirit--these would lead Him to scent the danger.</p> + +<p>But He falters not. The calmness of His will gives steadiness to His step +down the river's bank. Aye, the dangers lured Him on. He had a keen scent +for danger, for it was danger to His race of men, whose King He was in +right and would prove Himself in fact. He would draw the thorn points by +His own flesh that men might be saved their stinging prod and slash. He +would neutralize the burning acid poison of the undergrowth by the red +alkaline from His own veins. He would use the thorns to draw the healing +salve for the wounds they had caused. He would put His firm foot on the +serpent's head that His brothers might safely come along after. This was +the meaning of His plunge into the swift waters by John's side.</p> + +<p>The intense significance of this decisive step by Jesus is brought out +strikingly by what follows. What followed is God's comment upon it. Quick +as the act was done came the Father's approval. John's crowds were not the +only intent lookers-on that day. Jesus stands praying. Since He is going +this road it must be a-knee. Then the rift in the upper blue, the Holy +Spirit straight from the Father's presence comes upon the waiting Man and +the voice of pleased approval. And the heart of Jesus thrilled with the +sound of that approving voice. He could go any length, down any steep, if +He might only ever hear that voice in approval. Then the Holy Spirit took +possession of Him for the earth-mission. In the pathway of obedience down +that rough steep came the coveted power of God upon Him.</p> + +<p>Three times in His life the Father's voice came, and each time at a +crisis. Now at the plunge into the Jordan waters, which meant brotherhood +with the race, and meant, too, a frostier chill of other waters later on. +At the opening of the Greek door through which led an easy path to a +great following, and away from a cross, when Jesus, with an agony +intensified by the intensified nearing of those crossed logs, turned His +step yet more steadily in the path He had chosen that first Jordan day. +And between these two, on the mountain top, when the whole fabric of the +future beyond the cross hung upon three poor wobbling, spiritually stupid, +mentally untrained Galilean fishermen.</p> + +<p>This is the meaning of that step into the Jordan. It was the decisive +start.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch09"> +<h3>The Wilderness: Temptation</h3> + + + +<h4>The University of Arabia.</h4> + + +<p>The Jordan led to the Wilderness by a straight road. A first step without +slipping leads to the second. Victory opens the way to fresh struggles for +higher victories. The perfect naturalness of Jesus is revealed here, His +human naturalness. He had taken the decisive step into the Jordan waters. +And while absorbed in prayer had become conscious of a new experience. The +Spirit of God came upon Him in unusual measure. The effect of that always +is to awaken to new alertness and vigor every mental power, as well as to +key up every moral resolve. Jesus is <i>caught</i> at once by the grasp, the +grip of this new experience of the wondrous Spirit's control. Keenly alive +to its significance, awakened anew to the part He was to perform, and to a +consciousness of His peculiar relation to God and to man, He becomes +wholly absorbed in this newly intensified world of thought.</p> + +<p>Under the Spirit's impulse, He goes off into the solitude of the +wilderness to think. And in this mood of deep absorption, with every +faculty fully awake and every high moral impulse and purpose in full +throb, came the temptation with the recorded climax at the close.</p> + +<p>There came an intensifying of all His former consciousness, and +convictions, regarding His own personality and His mission to mankind, as +absorbed from the Hebrew parchments, with the undercurrent, lying away +down, of a tragedy to be met on the way up to the throne.</p> + +<p>Jesus was a man of great <i>intensity</i>. He could become so absorbed as to be +unconscious of other things. As a boy of twelve, when first He caught +fire, He was so taken up with the flood of thoughts poured into His mind +by the temple visit, that for three days and two nights He remained away +from His parents, simply absorbed in the world of thought awakened by that +visit. He could remain forty days in the wilderness without being +conscious of hunger. The impress of that forty days mentally remain with +Him during the remainder of His human life. Intensity is possible only to +strong mentality. The child's mind, the undisciplined mind, the mind +weakened by sickness or fatigue goes quickly from one thing to another. +The finest mental discipline is revealed in the greatest intensity, while +yet all the faculties remain at normal, not heated, nor disturbed by the +discoloration of heat.</p> + +<p>He withdrew into the wilderness to think and pray. He wanted to get away +from man that He might realize God. With the near flaming footlights shut +out, He could see clearly the quiet upper lights, His sure guides. These +forty days gave Him the true perspective. Things worked into proportion. +He never lost this wilderness perspective. The wilderness means to Him +<i>alone with God</i>, the false perspective, the flaming of near lights, the +noise of men's shuffling feet all gone. And when He went out among men for +work, that wilderness atmosphere went with Him. And when the crowds +thickened, and work piled up, and dangers intensified, off He would go for +a fresh bit of improvised wilderness.</p> + +<p>The temptation follows the natural lines of man's powers. Man was made +with mastery of himself, kingship over nature and all its forces, and +utter dependence, even for his very breath, upon God. While made perfect +in these, he would know them fully only through growth. He had three +relationships, to God, his fellows, and himself. His relation to God would +keep true the relation to himself, and adjust the relation to his fellows. +Keeping God in proper proportion in the perspective keeps one's self in +its true place always. Utter dependence by every man upon God would make +perfect harmony with his fellows. The dominion of nature was through +self-mastery, and this in turn would be only through the practice of utter +dependence upon God.</p> + +<p>Now all sin comes under this grouping, the relation to God, the relation +to others, within one's self. Temptation follows the line of exaggeration, +misuse, misadjustment, wrong motive. It pushes trust over into unwarranted +presumption. Dominion over nature crosses the line into the relation to +other men. Fellow-feeling gives way to an ambition to get ahead of the +other man and to boss him. Proper appetite and desire become lust and +passion. The dominion that man was to have over nature, he seeks also to +have over his brothers, so crossing the line of his own proper dominion +and trespassing on God's. Only God is to have dominion over all men. Where +a man is lifted to eminence of rule among his fellows he is simply acting +for Somebody else. He is not a superior. He is a servant of God, in ruling +over his fellows.</p> + +<p>John's famous grouping of all sin as "the lust of the flesh, lust of eye +and pride of life," refers to what is out "in the world." It touches only +<i>two</i> of these three: sin in one's self and in relation to his fellows, +with the dominion line out of adjustment. Out in the world God has been +left clean out, so the phase of trust isn't touched upon by John.</p> + +<p>Jesus' temptation follows these natural lines. Improper use of power for +the sake of the bodily appetite; to presume on God's care in doing +something unwarranted; to cross the line of dominion over nature and seek +to control men. For, be it remembered, Jesus was here as a man. The realm +of the body, the realm of religion, the realm of wrong ambition, these +were the temptation lines followed then, and before, and ever since.</p> + +<p>The going into the wilderness was planned by the Holy Spirit. He was in +charge of this campaign of Jesus to win back the allegiance of man and +the dominion of the earth. Jesus yielded Himself to the control of the +Holy Spirit for His earthly mission, even as later the Holy Spirit yielded +Himself wholly to the control of the exalted Jesus for <i>His</i> earthly +mission.</p> + +<p>Here the Spirit proves Himself a keen strategist. He drives hard at the +enemy. He forces the fighting. A decided victory over the chief at the +start would demoralize all the forces. It would be decisive of the whole +conflict, and prophetic of the final outcome. Every demon possessing a man +on the earth heard of his chief's rout that day, and recognized his +Victor, and feared Him, and knew of his own utter defeat in that of his +chief. Having gotten the chief devil on the run, every sub-devil fled at +Jesus' approach.</p> + +<p>The Spirit would show to man the weakness of the devil. The devil can do +nothing with the man who is calmly set in his loyalty to God. This new +Leader of the race was led up to the dreaded devil that men might know for +all time his weak spot. The poison of those fangs is completely +neutralized by simple, steady loyalty to God. But the rattles do make a +big scary noise.</p> + +<p>It is safe to go where the Spirit of God leads, and not safe to go +anywhere else. The wilderness, any wilderness, becomes a place of victory +if the Spirit of God be leading there. Any temptation is a chance for a +victory when the Spirit leads the way. A man's controlling motive +determines the attractiveness or ugliness of any place. To Jesus this +wilderness barren was one of the mountain peaks. Its forbidding chasms and +ugly gullies and darting snakes ever afterwards speak to Him of sweet +victory. The first great victory was here. He made the wilderness to +blossom with the rose of His unswerving loyalty to His Father. And its +fragrance has been felt by all who have followed Him there. To the tempter +it was a wilderness indeed, barren of anything he wanted. He quit it the +first chance he could make. He would remember the beasts and serpents and +dreary waste. For here he received his first death-thrust.</p> + +<p>Every man whom God has used has been in the wilderness. The two great +leaders before Jesus, and the great leader after Him, had each a +post-graduate course in the University of Arabia. A degree in that school +is required for those who would do valiant service for God. Only so can +the eyes and ears be trained away from the glare and blare of the crowd. +They needed it, we need it, for discipline. He, the matchless Man, for +that too, and that He might make it a place of sure victory for us.</p> + + + +<h4>Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus is the <i>only</i> One of whom we are told that He was led up to be +<i>tempted</i>. He was the leader of the race for the regaining of the blurred +image, the lost mastery and dominion. He Himself bade us pray not to be so +tempted. He out-matched the tempter. Any one of us, alone, is clearly +out-matched by that tempter. But we may always rest secure in the victory +He achieved that day. Only so are we safe.</p> + +<p>It is noteworthy that the <i>place</i> of the temptation was chosen by the +Spirit, and what place it is He chooses. Mark keenly, the tempter did not +choose it. He was obliged to start in there, but he seized the first +chance to get away to scenes more congenial to himself.</p> + +<p>The wilderness is one of the most marked spots on the earth's crust. That +remarkable stretch of land going by swift, steep descents almost from +Jerusalem's very door down to the Dead Sea. It was once described as "the +garden of God," that is, as Eden, for beauty and fertility, like the +fertile Egyptian bottoms. For long centuries no ghastlier bit of land can +be found, haggard, stripped bare, its strata twisted out of all shape, +blistering peeling rocks, scorching furnace-heat reflected from its rocks, +swept by hot desert winds, it is the land of death, an awful death; no +life save crawling scorpions and vipers, with an occasional hyena and +jackal. Here sin had a free line and ran riot. It ran to its logical +conclusion, till a surgical operation--a cauterization--was necessary to +save the rest. Earth's fairest became earth's ugliest. It is the one spot +where sin's free swing seamed its mark deepest in. The story of sin's +worst is burned into the crust of the earth with letters over a thousand +feet deep. This is sin's scar: earth's hell-scar.</p> + +<p>There is no talk of the glory of the kingdom here. Yet there had been +once. This is the very spot where that proposition on smaller scale was +made to a man in a crisis of <i>his</i> life, and where, lured by the +attractive outlook, he had chosen selfishly. This is the wilderness, sin's +wilderness, whither the Holy Spirit led Jesus for the tempter's assault. +No man does great service for God till he gets sin into its proportion in +his perspective.</p> + +<p>Jesus was tempted. Temptation, the suggestion to wrong, must find some +point of contact within. Therein consists the temptation to the man. +Without doubt there was a response within to the temptations that came to +Jesus. Satan always throws his line to catch on a hook inside. The +physical sense of hunger responded to the suggestion of getting hold of a +loaf. The unfailing breath of Jesus' life was trusting His Father. For the +<i>way</i> a thing should be done, as well as for getting the result, He +trusted His Father. This trust, underlying and permeating His whole life, +furnishes the point of contact for the second temptation.</p> + +<p>The ruling of a world righteously--not for the glory of reigning, +ingrained in <i>us</i>, but for the world's good and betterment--was ingrained +in Jesus by His birth, and fostered by His study of the Hebrew scriptures, +and by the consciousness of His mission. Here is the point of contact with +the third temptation. At once it is plain that there is nothing wrong here +in the inward response. For instantly it was clear that a response of His +<i>will</i> to these outer propositions would not be right, would be wrong, and +so these points of contact were instantly held in check by His will.</p> + +<p>"<i>Every</i> temptation" was brought, we are told: "tempted in <i>all</i> points." +This does not mean that every particular temptation came to Jesus, but the +heart, the essential, of every temptation. Every temptation that comes to +us is along the line of the three that came to Him. By rejecting the +<i>first</i> of each line He shut out its successors. By accepting the first of +a series of temptations a man opens the way for the next, and so on. +Temptations come on a scale descending. There are the first, the initial +temptations, and then all that follow in their train. Rejecting the first +stops the whole line. Not only that, but stops also the <i>momentum</i>, +terrific, downward momentum of the whole line.</p> + +<p>The first temptation is the door through which must pass all other +temptations of that sort. If that door be opened these other temptations +have a chance. If that door be kept shut, all these others are kept +waiting. Temptation is always standing with its pointed toe at the crack +of the door, waiting the slightest suggestion of an opening. This first +temptation is always the likeliest of its class to get in. It is not +always the same, of course. It is subtly chosen to suit the man. Jesus +kept these doors rigidly shut, key turned, bolts pushed, bar up, chain +hooked. So may we.</p> + +<p>The tempting is to be done by "the devil." That is his strong point, +tempting people. It is one way of recognizing some of his kin. It is a +mean, contemptible sort of thing. He had fallen into a hole of his own +digging, and would pull in everybody else. He is never constructive in his +work, always destructive. Best at tearing down. Never builds up. His +allies can often be told by their resemblance to him here. Jesus is to be +tempted by this master-tempter. He is going to prove to all his brothers +that the tempter has no power without the consent of the tempted. The door +into a man has only the one knob. And that's on the inside.</p> + + + +<h4>Waiting the Father's Word.</h4> + + +<p>Quite likely the form of the tempter's words suggests the upper current of +Jesus' thought. "If thou be the <i>Son of God</i>." Jesus was likely absorbed +with His peculiar relation to His Father, with all that that involved. The +tempter cunningly seeks to sweep Him off of His feet by working on His +mood. It is ever a favorite method with the tempter to <i>rush</i> a man. A +flush of feeling, the mood of an intense emotion tipped over the balance +with a quick motion of his, has swept many a man off his feet. But Jesus +held steady. There was no unholy heat of ambition to disturb the calm +working of His mind.</p> + +<p>Why "if"? Did Satan doubt it? Is he asking proof? He gets it. Jesus did +not need to prove His divinity except by continuing to be divine. He +proved best that He was Son of God by being true to His Sonship. He +naturally acted the part. We prove best that we are right by being right, +not by accepting captious, critical propositions. The stars shine. We know +they are stars by their shine. Satan would have Jesus use His divinity in +an undivine way. He was cunning. But Jesus was keener than the tempter was +cunning.</p> + +<p>"Get a loaf out of this stone. Don't go hungry. Be practical and +sensible." The cold cruelty of Satan! He makes no effort to relieve the +hunger. The hunger asked for bread and he gave it a stone. That is the +best he has. He is a bit short on bread. He would use the physical need to +break down the moral purpose. He has ever been doing just that. Sometimes +he induces a man to break down his strength in religious activity. And +then he takes advantage of his weakened condition. Even religious activity +should be refused save at the leading of God's Spirit. It will not do +simply to do <i>good.</i> The only safe thing is to do <i>God's will</i>, to be tied +fast to the tether of the Spirit's leading.</p> + +<p>Jesus <i>could</i> have made a loaf out of the stone. He did that sort of thing +afterwards. It was not wrong to do it, since, under other circumstances, +He did it. But it is wrong to do anything, even a good thing, at the +devil's suggestion. He would shun the counsel of the ungodly. The tempter +attacks first the <i>neediest</i> point, the hunger, and in so far the weakest, +the likeliest to yield. Yet it was the strongest, too, for Jesus could +make bread. The strongest point may become the weakest because of the very +temptation the possession of strength gives to use it improperly. Strength +used properly remains strength; used improperly it becomes weakness. The +strong points always need guarding, that the balance be not tipped over +and lost. Strength is never greater than when used rightly; never greater +than when refused to the improper use. The essence of sin is in the +improper use of a proper thing.</p> + +<p>The first step toward victory over temptation is to recognize it. Jesus' +quick, quiet reply here touches the human heart at once, and touches it at +its neediest and most sensitive point, the need of sympathy, of a fellow +feeling. He said, "<i>Man</i> shall not live." The tempter said, "God." Jesus +promptly said, "Man." He came to be man, the Son of man, and the Brother +of man. He took His place as a <i>man</i> that day in the Jordan water. He will +not be budged from man's side. He will stay on the man level in full touch +with His fellows at every step of the way.</p> + +<p>He was giving to every man, everywhere in the world, under stress of every +temptation; with every rope tugging at its fastenings, and threatening +every moment to slip its hold, and the man be lost in the storm, <i>to every +man</i> the right, the enormous staying power to say, "<i>Jesus</i>--a <i>man +</i>--such a one as I--was <i>here</i>, and as a <i>man</i> resisted--and <i>won</i>. He is +at my side. I'll lean on Him and <i>resist</i> too,--and <i>win</i> too--in the +strength of His winning."</p> + +<p>Jesus says here, "My life, my food, the supplying of my needs is in the +hands of my Father. When <i>He</i> gives the word, I'll do: not before. I'll +starve if He wishes it, but I'll not mistrust Him; nor do anything save as +He leads and suggests. I'll not act at <i>your</i> suggestion, nor anybody's +else but His. Starving doesn't begin to bother me like failing to trust +would do. But I haven't the faintest idea of starving with such a Father."</p> + +<p>"Not by bread alone, but by every word ... of God." Not by a loaf, but by +a word. When a man is where God would have him, he can afford to wait +patiently till God gives the word. A man is never unsteadier on his feet +than when he has gone where he was not led. "<i>I go at my Father's word." +"I wait</i> for my Father's word." Jesus' study of the parchment rolls in +Nazareth was standing Him in good stead now. Through many a prayerful hour +over that Word had come the trained ear, the waiting spirit, the doing of +things only at the Father's initiative. He could make bread, but He +wouldn't, unless the Father gave the word. It was not simply that He would +<i>not</i> act at the tempter's suggestion, but He would not act at all except +at the Father's word. And to this Jesus remained true, whether the request +for evidence came from the tempter direct, or from sneering Pharisee at +the temple's cleansing, or from unbelieving brothers.</p> + +<p>Life comes not through what a man can make, but through the Father's +controlling presence: not through our effort, but through the Father's +power transmitted through the pipe line of our ready obedience.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Just to let thy Father do</div> +<div class="line"> As He will.</div> +<div class="line"> Just to know that He is true,</div> +<div class="line"> And be still.</div> +<div class="line"> Just to follow hour by hour</div> +<div class="line"> As He leadeth.</div> +<div class="line"> Just to draw the moment's power</div> +<div class="line"> As it needeth.</div> +<div class="line"> Just to trust Him. This is all.</div> +<div class="line"> Then the day will surely be</div> +<div class="line"> Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall,</div> +<div class="line"> Bright and blesséd, calm and free."<sup><a href="#fn8">8</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Jesus held every activity, every power subject to the Father's bidding. +Not only obedient, but nothing else. Waiting the Father's send-off at +every turn: this is the message from Jesus that first tug, and first +victory. Jesus had held true in the realm of the body, in His relationship +to Himself.</p> + + + +<h4>Love Never Tests.</h4> + + +<p>Satan shifts the scene. These wilderness surroundings grate on his nerves. +The setting of this place, once first class, is now rather worn. He's +famous at that. It's a favorite device of His; quick scene-shifting. A man +wins a victory over temptation, but a quick change of surroundings finds +him unprepared if he isn't ever alert for it, and down he goes before the +new, unexpected rush, before he can get his wind. The tempter is not a +fool, as regards man. That is, as a rule he is not. In the light of all +facts obtainable about his career, that word <i>might</i> be thought of. Yet no +man of us may apply the word to him. Not one of us is a match for him. +We're not in the same class. In his keen subtlety and cunning he can +outmatch the keenest of us; outwit and befool without doing any extra +thinking. I am not using the word <i>wisdom</i> of him. We are safe only in the +wisdom of our big Brother who drew his fangs in the wilderness that day.</p> + +<p>He chooses shrewdly the spot for each following temptation. He's a master +stage manager. He always works for an <i>atmosphere</i> that will help his +purpose. He took Jesus up to one of the wings of the temple in the holy +city. The holy city, and especially its temple, would awaken holiest +emotions. Here it was that Jesus, as a boy, years before, had probably +first caught fire. It is likely that He never forgot that first visit. +Here everything spoke to Him of His Father. The tempter is skilfully +following the leading of Jesus' reply. Jesus had given a religious answer. +So He is given a religious atmosphere, and taken to a religious place. He +would trust the Father implicitly. Here is an opportunity to let men see +that beautiful spirit of trust. Here is a chance for a master-stroke. A +single simple act will preach to the crowds. "You'll come down in the +midst of an open-mouthed, admiring crowd." The devil loves the +spectacular, the theatrical. He is always working for striking, stagy +effects.</p> + +<p>How many a man has yielded to the <i>religious</i> temptation! He is taken up +in the air, and seems to float among ethereal clouds. It is better for us +to live in the strength of Somebody else's victory, and keep good hard +earth close to the soles of our feet, or we may come into contact with it +suddenly with feet and head changing places.</p> + +<p>The devil "taketh" Jesus. How could he? He could do it only by Jesus' +consent. Jesus yields to his taking. He has a strong purpose in it. He was +going for the sake of His brothers. The tempter cannot take anybody +anywhere except with his full consent. He tries to, and often befools men +into thinking he can. It's a lie. He cannot. Every man is an absolute +sovereign in his will, both as regards God and Satan. God will not do +anything with us without our ready consent. And be it keenly remembered +that the tempter <i>cannot</i>. Here Jesus gave consent for His brothers' sake.</p> + +<p>The tempter acts his part like an old hand. The proper thing here is some +scripture, repeated earnestly in unctuous tones. Was it from this tempter +that all of us religious folks and everybody else have gotten into the +<i>inveterate</i> habit of quoting verse and sentence entirely out of +connection? Any devil's lie can be proven from the Scriptures on that +plan. If it was he who set the pace, certainly it has been followed at a +lively rate. It was a cunning quotation, cunningly edited.</p> + +<p>The angels <i>are</i> ministering spirits. On their hands they do bear us up. +It is all true, blessedly true. But it is only true for the man who is +living in the first verse of that ninety-first psalm, "in the secret place +of the most High." The tempter threads his way with cautious skill among +those unpleasant allusions to the serpent, and the dragon, and getting +them under our feet, and then twisting and trampling with our hard heels. +He knew his ground well, and avoids such rough, rude sort of talk. It was +a cunning temptation, cunningly staged and worded and backed. He was doing +his best. One wonders if he really thought <i>Jesus</i> could be tripped up +that way. So many others have been, and are, even after Jesus has shown us +the way. A dust cloth would help some of us--for our Bibles--and a little +more exercise at the knee-joint, and a bit of the hard common sense God +has given every one of us.</p> + +<p>Did Jesus' wondrous, quiet calm nettle the tempter? Was He ever keener and +quieter? He would step from the substantial boat-deck to the yielding +water, He would cut Himself off from His Nazareth livelihood and step out +without any resources, He would calmly walk into Jerusalem when there was +a price upon His head, for so He was led by that Spirit to whose +sovereignty He had committed Himself. But He would do nothing at the +suggestion of this tempter. Jesus never used His power to show He had it, +but to help somebody. He could not. It is against the nature of power to +attempt to prove that you have it by using it. Power is never concerned +about itself, but wrapped up in practical service. There were no +theatricals about Jesus. He was too intensely concerned about the needs of +men. There are none in God-touched men. Elisha did not smite the waters to +prove that Elijah's power rested upon him, but <i>to get back across the +Jordan</i> to where his work was needing him and waiting his touch. Jesus +would wear Himself out bodily in ministering to men's needs, but He +wouldn't turn a hair nor budge a step to show that He could. This is the +touch-stone by which to know all Jesus-men.</p> + +<p>He rebukes this quotation by a quotation that breathes the whole spirit of +the passage where it is found. Thou shalt not <i>test</i> God to see if He will +do as He promises. These Israelites had been testing, criticizing, +questioning, doubting God. That's the setting of His quotation. Jesus says +that love never tests. It trusts. Love does not doubt, for it <i>knows</i>. It +needs no test. It could trust no more fully after a test, for it trusts +fully now. Aye, it trusts more fully now, for it is trusting <i>God</i>, not a +<i>test</i>. Every test of God starts with a question, a doubt, a misgiving of +God. Jesus' answer to the second temptation is: love never tests. It +trusts. Jesus keeps true in His relation to His Father.</p> + + + +<h4>The Devil Acknowledges the King.</h4> + + +<p>Another swift shift of the scene. Swiftness is a feature now. In a moment +of time, all the kingdoms, and all the glory of all the earth. Rapid work! +This is an appeal to the eye. First the palate, then the emotions, now the +eye. First the appetites, then the religious sense, now the ambition. The +tempter comes now to the real thing he is after. He would be a god. It is +well to sift his proposition pretty keenly, on general principles. His +reputation for truthfulness is not very good, which means that it is very +bad. Who wants to try a suspicious egg? He could have quite a number of +capitals after his name on the score of mixing lies and the truth. He has +a distinct preference for the flavor of <i>mixed</i> lies.</p> + +<p>Here are the three statements in his proposal. All these things have been +delivered unto me. I may give them to whom I will. I will give them to +you. The first of these is true. He is "the prince of this world." The +second is not true, because through breach of trust he has forfeited his +rule, though still holding to it against the Sovereign's wish. The third +is not true. Clearly he hadn't any idea of relinquishing his hold, but +only of swamping Jesus. Two parts lie: one part truth--a favorite formula +of his. The lie gets the vote. A bit of truth sandwiched in between two +lies.</p> + +<p>He asks for worship. Did he really think that possibly Jesus would +actually worship him? The first flush answer is, surely not. Yet he is +putting the thing in a way that has secured actual worship from many a'one +who would be horrified at such a blunt putting of his conduct. We must +shake off the caricature of a devil with pointed horns, and split hoof, +and forked tail, and see the real, to understand better. From all accounts +he must be a being of splendor and beauty, of majestic bearing, and +dignity. His appeal in effect is this:--These things are all mine. You +have in you the ingrained idea of a world-wide dominion over nature, and +of ruling all men as God's King. Now, can't we fix this thing up between +us? Let's be friendly. Don't let's quarrel over this matter of world +dominion.</p> + +<p>You acknowledge me as your sovereign. You rule over all this under me. +I'll stand next to God, and you stand next to me. It's a mere technical +distinction, after all. It'll make no real change in your being a +world-wide ruler, and it will make none with me either. Each will have a +fair share and place. Let's pull together.--The thing sounds a bit +familiar. It seems to me I have heard it since somewhere, if I can jog up +my memory. It has raised a cloud of dust in many a man's road, and blurred +the clear outlines of the true plan--<i>has</i> raised?--<i>is</i> raising.</p> + +<p>Jesus' answer is imperative. It is the word of an imperative. He is the +King already in His Father's plan. He replies with the sharp, imperial +brevity of an emperor, a king of kings, "Get thee hence!" Begone! The +tempter obeys. He knows his master. He goes. Biting his teeth upon his hot +spittle, utterly cowed, he slinks away. Only one Sovereign, Jesus says. +All dominion held properly only by direct dependence upon Him, direct +touch with Him, full obedience to Him. No compromise here. No mixing of +issues. Simple, direct relation to God, and every other relation <i>through</i> +that. No short cuts for Jesus. They do but cut with deep gashes the man +who cuts. The "short" describes the term of his power, a short shrift.</p> + +<p>When the devil has used up all his ammunition--. That's a comfort. There +is an end to the devil if we will but quietly hold on. Every arrow shot. +Not a cartridge left. Yet he is not entirely through with Jesus. He has +retired to reform the broken lines. He'll melt up the old bullets into +different shape. They have been badly battered out of all shape by +striking on this hard rock. He's a bit shaken himself. This Jesus is +something new. When he can get his wind he will come back. He came back +many times. Once through ignorant Peter with the loaf temptation in new +shape, once through His mother's loving fears with the emotional +temptation, and through the earnest, hungry Greeks, and the bread-full +thousands with the kingdom temptation. Yet the edge of His sword is badly +nicked, and never regains its old edge.</p> + +<p>But now he goes. He obeys Jesus. The tempter resisted goes, weakened. He +is a coward now. He fights only with those weaker than himself. He +doesn't take a man of his own size. Temptation resisted strengthens the +man. There is a new resisting power. There is the fine fettle that victory +gives. Jesus is Victor. The Jordan experience has left its impress. Every +act of obedience is to the tempter's disadvantage. In Jesus we are +victors, too. But only in Him.</p> + +<p>Through Jesus we meet a fangless serpent. The old glare is in the eye, the +rattles are noisy, but the sting's out. He is still there. He still can +scare; but can do not even that to the man arm-in-arm with Jesus. Jesus +keeps true the relationship to all men and to nature by keeping true the +relationship to His Father.</p> + +<p>Our Father, lead us not into temptation as Jesus was led. We're no match +for the tempter. Help us to keep arm-in-arm with Jesus, and live ever in +the power of His victory.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch10"> +<h3>The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure</h3> + + + +<h4>God in Sore Straits.</h4> + + +<p>The darkest hour save only one has now come in Jesus' life. And that one +which was actually darkest, in every way, from every view-point darkest, +had in it some gleams of light that are not here. Jesus is now a fugitive +from the province of Judea. The death plot has been settled upon. There's +a ban in Jerusalem on His followers. Already one man has been cut off from +synagogue privileges, and become a religious and social outcast. The +southerners are pushing the fight against Jesus up into Galilee.</p> + +<p>Four distinct times that significant danger word "withdrew" has been used +in describing Jesus' departure from where the Judean leaders had come. +First from Judea to Galilee, then from Galilee to distant foreign points +He had gone, for a time, till the air would cool a bit. The bold return to +Jerusalem at the fall Feast of Tabernacles had been attended, first by an +official attempt to arrest, and then by a passionate attempt to stone +Jesus to death.</p> + +<p>And now the Galilean followers begin to question, and to leave. His +enemies' northern campaign, together with His own plain teaching, has +affected the Galilean crowds. They come in as great numbers as ever to +hear and to be healed. But many that had allied themselves as Jesus' +followers decide that He is not the leader they want. He is quite too +unpractical. The kingdom that the Galileans are eager for, that the Roman +yoke may be shaken off, seems very unlikely to come under such a leader. +Many desert Him.</p> + +<p>Jesus felt the situation keenly. The kingdom plan in Jerusalem had failed. +And now the winning of individuals as a step in another plan is slipping +its hold. These people are glad of bread and the easing of bodily +distress, but the tests of discipleship they pull away from. He turns to +the little band of His own choosing, with a question that reveals the keen +disappointment of His heart. There's a tender yearning in that question, +"Will ye also go away?" And Peter's instant, loyal answer does not blind +His keen eyes to the extremity. With sad voice He says, "One of you, my +own chosen friends, one of you is a--devil." Things are in bad shape, and +getting worse.</p> + +<p>It was a time of dire extremity. God was in sore straits. The kingdom plan +was clearly gone for the present. The rub was to save enough out of the +wreckage to get a sure starting-point for the new plan, through which, by +and by, the other original plan would work out. There can be no stronger +evidence of God's need of men than this transfiguration scene. Just +because He had made man a sovereign in his will, God must work out all of +His plans <i>through</i> that sovereign will. He would not lower one whit His +ambition for a man free in his own will. He Himself would do nothing to +mar the divine image in man. For man's sake, and <i>through</i> man's +will--that is ever God's law of dealing.</p> + + + +<h4>Fire and Anvil for Leaders.</h4> + + +<p>The great need just now was not simply for men who would be loving and +loyal, but men who would be <i>leaders</i>. It has ever been the sorest need. +Men are not so scarce, true-hearted men, willing to endure sacrifice, but +<i>leaders</i> have always been few, and are. Nothing seems to be less +understood than leadership; and nothing so quickly recognized when the +real thing appears. Peter <i>was</i> a leader among these men. He had dash and +push. He was full of impulse. He was always proposing something. He acted +as spokesman. He blurted out whatever came. The others followed his lead. +There were the crude elements of leadership here. But not true leadership +of the finer, higher kind.</p> + +<p>The whole purpose of the transfiguration was to get and tie up leaders. It +was an emergency measure, out of the regular run of things. Goodness makes +character. It takes goodness plus ability to make true leadership. The +heart can make a loving follower. It takes a heart, warm and true, plus +<i>brains</i> to make a leader. Character is the essential for life. For true +leadership, there needs to be character plus ability: the ability to keep +the broad sweep of things, and not be lost in details, nor yet to lose +sight of details; to discern motive and drifts; to sift through the +incidentals which may be spectacular and get to the essential which may be +in Quaker garb.</p> + +<p>There are two sorts of leadership, of action, and of thought. By +comparison with the other, leaders of action are many, leaders of thought +few. Peter was the leader in action of the disciples, and in the earlier +church days. John became the leader in thought of the later years of the +early church. Paul was both, a very unusual combination. Leaders are born, +it is true. But the finest and truest and highest leaders must be both +born leaders, and then born again as leaders. There needs to be the +original stuff, and then that stuff hammered into shape under hard blows +on the anvil of experience. The fire must burn out the clay and dirt, and +then the hammer shape up the metal. Leaders must have convictions driven +in clear through the flesh and bone, and riveted on the other side.</p> + +<p><i>Simon</i> loved Jesus, but there needed to be more before <i>Peter</i> would +arrive. It took the transfiguration to put into the impulsive, unsteady, +wobbling Simon the metal that would later become steel in Peter. Yet it +took much more, and finally the fire of Pentecost, to get the needed +temper into the steel. These same lips could give that splendid statement +that has become the church's foundation; and, a bit later, utter boldly +foolish, improper words to Jesus; and, later yet, utter vulgar profanity, +and words far worse, aye, the worst that could be said about a <i>friend</i>, +and in that friend's <i>need</i>, too.</p> + +<p>This was a fair sample of the clay and iron, the Simon and the Peter in +this man. Yet it was with painful slowness that he had been brought up to +where he is now. Two years of daily contact with Jesus. Slow work! No, +rapid work. Nobody but Jesus could have done it in such a short time. +Nobody but Jesus could have done it at all. And, mark you keenly, this man +is the <i>leader</i> of the band of men that stand closest to Jesus. This is +the setting of the great transfiguration scene.</p> + + + +<h4>An Irresistible Plan.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus goes off, away from the crowds, to have a bit of quiet time with +this inner band of His. Here is the strategic point, now. The key to the +future plan is in this small group. If that key can be filed into shape, +cleaned of rust, and gotten to fit and turn in the lock, all may yet be +well. The nub of all future growth is here. With simple, keen tact He +begins His questionings, leading on, until Peter responds with his +splendid declaration for which the church has ever been grateful to him. +"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It comes to Jesus' ears +as a grateful drink of cold water to a thirsty man on a hot day in a +dusty road.</p> + +<p>Then to this leader and to the inner circle, He reveals the changed plan. +For the first time the word church is used, that peculiar word which later +becomes the name of the new organization, "a company of persons called +out." He is going to build up a church upon this statement of faith from +Peter's lips, and this church will hold the relation to the kingdom of +key-holder, administrator. The church is to be a part of the +administration of the coming kingdom.</p> + +<p>And so Jesus begins His difficult, sad task of preparing this band for the +event six months off in Jerusalem. There is to be a tragedy before the +building of the church which will hold the kingdom keys. So thoroughly +does Peter fail to understand Jesus, that with stupid boldness he attempts +to "rebuke" Him. Peter "took" Jesus. A great sight surely! He slips his +hand in Jesus' arm and takes Him off to one side to--straighten--Him--out. +This Jesus is being swept off His feet by undue emotional enthusiasm. +Peter would fix it up and save the day. It would take Peter to do that.</p> + +<p>And this is a sample of the best leadership in this inner group. Things +were in bad shape. All the machinery hung upon a little pin holding two +parts together. That pin threatens to bend and break for lack of temper. +The Son of God leaves all else and turns aside to attend to a pin. The +future of the kingdom hung upon three undisciplined country fishermen. +The transfiguration spells out God's dire extremity in getting a footing +in human hearts <i>and brains</i> for His plans. Something must be done.</p> + +<p>Mark what that something was to be: so simple in itself, so tremendous in +its results. They were to be allowed to <i>see Jesus</i>. That would be enough. +The Jesus within would look out through the body He was using. The real +Jesus within looked out through the Jesus they knew. He let these men see +Himself a few moments; simply that. All of that, yet simply that. They +were His lovers. They were to be sorely tried by coming events. They were +to be the leaders. To <i>love</i>, for a time of <i>sore need</i>, for <i>service's</i> +sake, for the sake of the <i>multitudes</i> whose <i>leaders</i> they were to be, +for the saving of the <i>church</i> plan, and beyond of the <i>kingdom</i> plan, the +Jesus within looked out for a few moments into their faces.</p> + +<p>It was the same plan used later in getting another leader. Jesus had to go +outside these men for a man with qualifications needed by the situation +that these men did not have. The human element again in evidence. Paul +says, "When I could not see for the glory of that light." That light +bothered his eyes. The old ambitions were blurred. He couldn't see them. +The outlines dimmed, the old pedigree and plans faded out. They could no +longer be seen for the glory of that light. It is the plan the Master has +ever used, and still does. It is irresistible.</p> + + + +<h4>"The Glory of that Light."</h4> + + +<p>It was six days, or eight counting both ends, after the first telling of +the coming tragedy that shook them so. Here is a bit of practical +psychology. Jesus lets the brain impression made by that strange +announcement <i>deepen</i> before making the next impression. Jesus went up +into the mountain "to pray." Prayer never failed Him. It was equal to +every need with Jesus. It was while praying that the wondrous change came. +Changed while praying. When Moses came down from that long time alone with +God, his face was full of the glory reflected from God's presence. +Stephen's face caught the light of another Face into which he was intently +looking.</p> + +<p>Jesus was changed <i>from within</i>. It was His own glory that these men saw. +He had wrapped Himself up in a bit of human tapestry so He could move +among men without blinding their eyes. Now He looks out through the +strands. They are astonished and awed to find that face they know so well +now shining as the sun, and the garments made transparent as light, +glistening like snow, by reason of the great brilliance of the light +within. Yet Jesus let out only a part of the glory. When Paul saw, on the +Damascus road, the light was <i>above</i> the shining of the sun.</p> + +<p>When their eyes get over the first daze, the disciples come to see that +besides Jesus there are two others, two of the old Hebrew leaders. There +is Moses, the great maker of the nation, the greatest leader of all. And +rugged Elijah, who had boldly stood in the breach and saved the day when +the nation's king was proposing to replace the worship of Jehovah with +demon-worship. They are talking earnestly together, these three, +about--what? The great sacrifices Jesus had been enduring? The +disappointment in the kingdom plan? The suffering and shame to be endured? +The bitter obstinacy of the opposition? The chief priests' plotting? +Listen! They are talking about the departure, the exodus, the going out +and up, Jesus is about to <i>accomplish</i>. They are absorbed in Jesus. He was +about to execute a master-stroke. He is going to accomplish a great move. +They are wholly absorbed in Him, this Moses, and Elijah, and in this great +move of His for men.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile these men lying on the ground are waking up and rubbing their +eyes. The only jarring note is a human note. John and James look with awe, +reverent awe. It is an insight into their character that nothing is said +about them. Their sense of reverence and power of control are to the +front. It is dear, impulsive old Peter who can't keep still, even amid +such a scene. His impulsive heart is just back of his lips, with no +check-valves between. He must offer a few remarks. This great vision must +be duly recognized. What a sensation it would make in Jerusalem to get +these two men to stay and come down and address a meeting! That would turn +the tide surely. Luke graciously explains that he did not know what he +was saying. No, probably not. The tongue seemed to be going mechanically, +rather than by the controlling touch of the will. Peter seems to have a +large posterity, some of whom abide with us to this day.</p> + +<p>Then the vision is shut out by the intervening cloud. This human +interference disturbs the atmosphere. For Peter's sake, the glory is +hidden that the impression of it may not be rubbed out even slightly by +his own speech. We blur and lose the impression God would make upon us, by +our speech, sometimes. A bit of <i>divine</i> practical psychology, this +movement of the cloud. Then the quiet voice that thrilled them with the +message of the Jordan, "This is My Son; My Chosen One: hear ye Him." Then +it is all over.</p> + +<p>It is most striking that this wondrous vision of glory is for these three +obscure, untutored men, of lowly station. Not for the nation's leaders. +Yet the reason is plain. They had gladly accepted what light had come. To +them came more. Their door was open. It is these men who had obeyed light +that now received more. To him that hath received what light has come +shall be given more. From him that hath no light, because he won't let it +in, shall be taken away even what light he has. Shut fists will stifle +what is already held, and the life of it oozes out between the fingers.</p> + +<p>In each of the three Gospels recording this scene it is introduced by the +same quotation from Jesus' lips. There were some persons in His presence +who would not die until they had seen the kingdom of God. The writers' +reference is clearly to the vision that follows. It is said to be a vision +of the coming kingdom. Jesus, with the divine glory within, no longer +concealed, but shining out with an indescribable splendor, up above the +earth, with two godly men, one of whom had died, and the other had been +caught up from the earth without death, talking earnestly about men and +affairs on the earth, and in direct communication with the Father--that is +the vision here of the kingdom.</p> + + + +<h4>A Vision of Jesus.</h4> + + +<p>And so the darkest hour save only one was filled with the brightest light. +The after, darker hour of Calvary had gleams of light from this +transfiguration scene. There was faithful John's sympathetic presence all +through the trial. John never flinched. And Peter had tears that caught +the light from Jesus' eyes, and reflected their glistening rays within. +Those tears of Peter's were a great comfort to Jesus that night and the +next day. The two greatest leaders were sure.</p> + +<p>The transfiguration served its purpose fully. The memory of it saved Peter +out of the wreckage of Simon, else Judas' hemp might have had double use +that night. Under the leadership of these men, the little band hold +together during that day, so awful to them in the killing of their leader +and the dashing of all their fondest hopes on which they had staked +everything. Two nights later finds them gathered in a room. Could it have +been the same upper room where they had eaten <i>with Him</i> that +never-to-be-forgotten night, and listened to His comforting words? Only +Thomas does not come. Everybody swings in but one. That shows good work by +these leaders. But another week's work brings him, too, into the meeting +and into the light.</p> + +<p>These three men never forgot the sight of that night. John writes his +Gospel under the spell of the transfiguration. "We beheld <i>His glory"</i> he +says at the start, and understands Isaiah's wondrous writings, because he, +too, "<i>saw His glory."</i> The impression made upon Peter deepened steadily +with the years. The first impression of garments glistening beyond any +fuller's skill has grown into an abiding sense of the "<i>majesty" </i> of +Jesus and "<i>the majestic glory</i>." I think it wholly likely, too, that this +vision of glory was in James' face, and steadied his steps, as so early in +the history he met Herod's swordsman.</p> + +<p>It was <i>a vision of Jesus</i> that turned the tide. There's nothing to be +compared with that. A man's life and service depend wholly on the vision +of Jesus that has come, that is coming. When that comes, instinctively he +finds himself ever after saying, without planning to,</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line"> "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,</div> +<div class="line"> I've lost sight of all beside.</div> +<div class="line"> So enchained my spirit's vision,</div> +<div class="line"> Looking at the Crucified."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>With the Damascus traveller he will be saying, "When I could not see for +the glory of that light." May we each with face open, uncovered, all +prejudice and self-seeking torn away, behold the glory of Jesus, even +though for the sake of our eyes it come as a reflected glory. Then we +shall become, as were Moses and Stephen, unconscious reflectors of that +glory. And the crowd on the road shall find Jesus in us and want Him. +Then, too, we ourselves shall be changing from glory to glory, by the +inner touch of Jesus' Spirit, as we continue gazing.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch11"> +<h3>Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle</h3> + + + +<h4>The Pathway In.</h4> + + +<p>Great events always send messengers ahead. There is a movement in the +spirit currents. A sort of tremor of expectancy affects the finer currents +of air. The more sensitively organized one is, that is to say, the more +the spirit part of a man dominates body and mind, the more conscious will +he be of the something coming.</p> + +<p>Jesus was keenly conscious ahead of the coming of Calvary. Apart from the +actual knowledge, there was a painful thrill of expectancy, intensifying +as the event came nearer. The cross cast long, dark shadows ahead. The +darkest is Gethsemane. It would be, for it was nearest. But there were +other shadows before that of the olive grove. Jesus plainly reveals in His +behavior, in His appearance, that He felt keenly, into the very fibre, so +sensitively woven, of His being, that the experience of the cross would be +a terrific one for Him. It was deliberately chosen by Him, and the time of +its coming chosen in the full knowledge that it would be an awful ordeal. +It would establish the earth's record for suffering, never approached +before or since.</p> + +<p>As He turns His face for the last time away from Galilee, and to Judea, +it is with the calmness of strong deliberation. Yet the intenseness of the +inner spirit, in its look ahead, is shown in His face, His demeanor. As He +comes to a certain Samaritan village on the road south, the usual +invitation to stop for rest and a bit of refreshment is withheld out of +respect to His evident purpose. It is clear to these villagers that His +face is set to go to Jerusalem. In Luke's striking language, "<i>His face +was going to Jerusalem.</i>" What going to Jerusalem meant to Him had no +meaning to them. They saw only that face, and were so caught by the +strong, stern determination plainly written there that they felt impelled +not to offer the usual hospitality.</p> + +<p>They were Samaritans, it is true, a half-breed race, hated by Jews, and +hating them, but invariably they had been friendly to Jesus. That must +have been a marked face that held back these homely country people from +pressing their small attentions upon Jesus. They are keener to read the +meaning of that face than are these disciples who are more familiar with +the sight of it. The impress already made upon the inner spirit by the +great event toward which Jesus had determinedly set Himself was even thus +early marked in His face.</p> + +<p>Later, on that journey south, as the time and place are nearing, He +strides along the road, with such a look in His face as makes these men, +who had lived in closest touch, "amazed," that is, awed and frightened. +And as they followed behind, they were "afraid." It is the only time it is +said that the sight of His face made them <i>afraid</i>. Then He explains to +them what is in His thoughts, with full details of the indignities to be +heaped upon His person. The sternness of His purpose, perhaps not only the +terrible experience of knowing sin at such close range, but, not unlikely, +an anger, a hot indignation against sin and its ravages, which He was +going to stab to death, flashed blinding lightning out of those eyes.</p> + +<p>It was, not unlikely, something of the same feeling as made Him shake with +indignation as He realized His dear friend Lazarus in the cold, clinging +embrace of death, sin's climax. The determination to conquer sin, give it +a death thrust, mingled with His acute consciousness of that through which +He must go in the doing of it, wrote deep marks on His face. It is the +beginning already of Gethsemane, as that, in turn, is of Calvary.</p> + +<p>Earlier in the last week occurs the incident which agitates Jesus so, of +the Greeks' request for an interview. These earnest seekers for truth, +from outside the Jewish nation, seem to bring up to His mind the great +outside world, so hungry for Him, and for which He was so hungry. But, +quick as a flash, there falls over that the inky black shadow of a cross +in His path, and the instant realization that only <i>through it</i> could He +get out to these great outside crowds.</p> + +<p>As though unaware of the presence of the crowds, He begins talking with +Himself, out of His heart, saying words which none understand. "Now is my +innermost being agitated, all shaken up; and what decisive word shall I +speak? Shall I say, 'Father, save me from this experience'? He can. No, I +cannot say that, for for this purpose I have deliberately come to it. This +is what I will say--and the agitation within His spirit issues in the +victorious tightening of every rivet in His purpose--'Father, glorify Thy +name.'" This is Gethsemane already, both in the struggle and in the +victory through loyalty to the Father's will.</p> + + + +<h4>The Climax of Jesus' Suffering.</h4> + + +<p>And now comes Gethsemane. Both hat and shoes quickly go off here, for this +is holiest ground. One looks with head bowed and breath held in, and +reverential awe ever deepening. The shadow of the cross so long darkening +His path is now closing in and enveloping Jesus. The big trees cast black +shadows against the brilliance of the full moon. Yet they are as bright +lights beside this other shadow, this inky shadow cast by the tree up +yonder, just outside the Jerusalem wall, with the huge limb sitting +sharply astride the trunk.</p> + +<p>The scene under these trees has been spoken of by almost all, if not by +all, as a strange struggle. With a great variety of explanations men have +wondered why He agonized so. It <i>was</i> a strange struggle, and ever will +be, not understood, strange to angels and to men and to demons. It is +strange to angels of the upper world, for they do not know, and cannot, +the terrific meaning of sin as did Jesus. It is strange to all other men +except Jesus, for we do not know the meaning of purity as Jesus did. And +it was strange to demons, for in the event of the morrow sin was working +out a new degree of itself, a new superlative, in its final attack on +Jesus. Sin was trying to strangle God. Even demons stared.</p> + +<p>Purity refined beyond what angels knew, and sin coarsened beyond what +demons knew were coming together. Purity's finest and sin's coarsest were +coming together in the closest touch thus far, in this Man under those old +brown-barked gray-leaved, gnarly trees. The shock of such extremes meeting +would be terrific. It <i>was</i> terrific here under the trees. It was yet more +so on the morrow. Here was the cross in anticipation. Calvary was in +Gethsemane.</p> + +<p>Man never will understand the depth of Gethsemane. We are incapable of +sympathizing with Jesus here. Yet it is true that as the Holy Spirit +within a man increases the purity, and the horror of sin, there comes an +increasing sense of sympathy with Him, and an increasing appreciation that +we cannot go into the depths of what He knew here. In the best of us sin +is ingrained. Jesus was wholly free from taint or twist of sin. He knew it +only in others. Now He, the pure One, purity personified, was coming into +<i>closest</i> contact with sin, and sin at its worst. He had been in contact +with sin in <i>others</i>. He had seen its cruel ravages and been indignant +against it.</p> + +<p>Now, on the morrow, He is to know sin by a horrid intimacy of contact, and +sin at a new worst. He was yielding to its tightest hold. Sin at its +ugliest would stretch out its long, bony arms and gaunt hands, and fold +Him to itself in closest embrace and hold Him there. And He was allowing +this, that so when sin's worst was done, He might seize it by the throat +and strangle it. He would put death to death. Yet so terrific is the +struggle that He must accept in Himself that which He thereby destroys. +This is the agony of Gethsemane. It may be told, but not understood. Only +one as pure as He could understand, and then only under circumstances that +never will come again.</p> + +<p>The horror of this contact with sin is intensified clear out of our reach +by this: it meant <i>separation from His Father</i>. The Father was the life of +Jesus. The Father's presence and approving smile were His sunshine. From +the earliest consciousness revealed to us was that consciousness of His +<i>Father</i>. Only let that smile be seen, that voice heard, that presence +felt by this One so sensitive to it, and all was well. No suffering +counted. The Father's presence tipped the scales clear down against every +hurting thing.</p> + +<p><i>But</i>--now on the morrow that would be changed. The Father's face +be--hidden--His presence <i>not</i> felt. That was the climax of all to Jesus. +Do you say it was for a short time only? In minutes y-e-s. As though +experiences were ever told by the clock! What bulky measurements of time +we have! Will we never get away from the clocks in telling time? No clock +ever can tick out the length to Jesus of that time the Father's face was +hidden. This hiding of the Father's face was the climax of suffering to +Jesus.</p> + + + +<h4>Alone.</h4> + + +<p>It was a very full evening for Jesus. In the upper room of a friend's +house they meet for the eating of the Passover meal. There is the great +act of washing His disciples' feet, the eating of the old Hebrew prophetic +meal, the going out of Judas into the night of his dark purpose, the new +simple memorial meal. Then come those long quiet talks, in which Jesus +speaks out the very heart of His heart, and that marvellous prayer so +simple and so bottomless.</p> + +<p>Very likely He is talking, as they move quietly along the Jerusalem +streets, out of the gate leading toward the Kedron brook, and then over +the brook toward the enclosed spot, full of the great old olive trees. The +moon is at the full. This is one of His favorite praying places. He is +going off for a bit of prayer. <i>So</i> He approaches this great crisis. There +is a friendly word spoken to these men that they be keenly alert, and +<i>pray</i>, lest they yield to temptation. It is significant, this word about +temptation. Then into the woods He goes, the disciples being left among +the trees, while He goes in farther with the inner three, then farther +yet, quite alone. Intense longing for fellowship mingles with intense +longing to be alone. He would have a warm hand-touch, yet they cannot help +Him here, and may do something to jar.</p> + +<p>Now He is on His knees, now prone, full length, on His face. The +agony is upon Him. Snatches of His prayer are caught by the +wondering three ere sleep dulls their senses. "My Father--if it be +possible--<i>let--this--cup--pass</i>--from--me--Yet--<i>Thy--will</i>--be done." +The words used to tell of His mental distress are so intense that the +translators are puzzled to find English words strong enough to put in +their place. A frenzy of fright, a nightmare horror, a gripping chill +seizes Him with a terrible clutch. It is as though some foul, poisonous +gas is filling the air and filling His nostrils and steadily choking His +gasping breath. The dust of death is getting into His throat. The strain +of spirit is so great that the life tether almost slips its hold. And +angels come, with awe stricken faces, to minister. Even after that, some +of the life, that on the morrow is to be freely spilled out, now reddens +the ground. The earth is beginning to feel the fertilizing that by and by +is to bring it a new life.</p> + +<p>By and by the mood quiets, the calm returns and deepens. The changed +prayer reveals the victory: "My Father, if this cup <i>can</i>not pass away +except I drink it--if only through this experience can Thy great love-plan +for the race be worked out--Thy--will"--slowly, distinctly, with the +throbbing of His heart and the iron of His will in them, come the +words--"Thy--will--be--done." In between times He returns to the drowsy +disciples with the earnest advice again about being awake, and alert, and +praying because of temptation near by.</p> + +<p>And gentle reproach mingles in the special word spoken to Peter. "Simon, +are you sleeping? Could you not be watching with me <i>one hour</i>?" Yes, this +was Simon now, the old Simon. Jesus' new Peter was again slipping from +view. Then the great love of His heart excuses their conduct. What +masterly control in the midst of unutterable agitation! Back again for a +last bit of prayer, and then He turns His face with a great calm breathing +all through those deep lines of suffering, and with steady step turns +toward the cross.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch12"> +<h3>Calvary: Victory</h3> + + + +<h4>Yielding to Arrest.</h4> + + +<p>It is probably close to midnight when Jesus steps out from among the trees +to meet the crowds headed by the traitor. He knew they were coming, and +quietly goes to meet them. There is a great rabble that the chief priests +had drummed up, a city rabble with Roman soldiers, some of the chief +priests' circle, and in the lead of all, Judas. Judas keeps up the +pretense of friendship, and, advancing ahead of his crowd, greets Jesus +with the usual kiss. Jesus dispels the deception at once with His question +of reproach, "Betrayest thou with a <i>kiss</i>?" Damnable enough to betray, +but to use love's token in hate's work made it so much worse. Then He +yields to Judas' lips. It was the beginning of the indignities He was to +suffer that night. Jesus quietly adds, "Friend, do what you have planned. +Let there be no more shamming." But Judas' work is done. The silver +secured under his belt is earned. He drops back into the crowd.</p> + +<p>Jesus steps out into the clear moonlight, and faces the crowd pressing +eagerly up. His is the one masterly, majestic presence. Quietly He asks, +"Whom are you hunting for?" Back comes the reply, "Jesus of Nazareth." +Jesus at once replies, "I am He." Again, that strange power of Jesus' +presence is felt, but now more marked than ever before. The crowd falls +backward and down to the ground. Soldiers, priests, crowds, Judas lying +prone before Jesus! Again the question and the answer, and then the word +spoken on behalf of His followers. This manifestation of power is <i>for +others</i> this time.</p> + +<p>Recovering themselves, the crowds press forward. The bewildered Peter +makes an awkward stroke with a sword he had secured and cuts off the right +ear of a man in the front of the crowd. Jesus gently stops the movement +with a word. The Father would even then send twelve legions of angels if +He were but to give the word. But He was not giving words of that sort, +but doing what the Father wished. With a word of apology for His impetuous +follower, the man's ear is restored with a touch. Surely <i>he</i> never forgot +Jesus.</p> + +<p>The leaders, now satisfied that Jesus will not use His power on His own +behalf, seize Him and begin to bind His hands. As He yields to their +touch, Jesus, looking into the faces of the Jewish leaders, said, "You +hunt me and treat me as though I were a common robber. I have never tried +to get away from you. But now for a while things are in your control, the +control of the powers of night."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the disciples forsook Him and fled, except two, John and Peter. +Peter followed at what he thought a safe distance. John kept along with +the crowd, and went in "<i>with Jesus</i>." Mark tells about the attempted +arrest of a young man who seemed friendly to Jesus, but in the struggle he +escaped, leaving his garments behind. And so they make their way, a +torch-light procession through the darkness of the night, back across the +brook, up the steep slope to the city gate, and through the narrow streets +to the palace of the high priest.</p> + + + +<h4>The Real Jewish Ruler.</h4> + + +<p>Here Jesus is expected. Late as it is He is at once brought before Annas. +Annas was an old man who had been high priest himself once, years before, +and who had afterwards absolutely controlled that office through the +successive terms of his sons and now of his son-in-law. He was the real +leader of the inner clique that held the national reins in a clutching +grip. Caiaphas was the nominal high priest. The old man Annas was the real +leader. He controlled the inner finances and the temple revenues. To him +first Jesus is taken. He begins a quizzical, critical examination of Jesus +about disciples and teaching. Possibly he is trying to overawe this young +Galilean. Jesus calmly answers. "I have taught openly, never secretly; +everybody knows what my teaching has been. Why ask Me? These people all +around have heard all my teaching." He was ever in the open, in sharp +contrast with these present proceedings. One of the underlings of the +high priest--struck--Jesus--in the face, saying, "Answerest thou the high +priest so?" Jesus quietly replies, "If I have spoken something wrong tell +me what it is, but if not, why do you strike Me?" Annas ignores the gross +insult by one of his own men, and, probably with an exultant sneer that +the disturber of the temple revenues is in his power at last, gives order +that Jesus be bound and taken to his chief underling, Caiaphas.</p> + +<p>This is the first phase of the condemnation determined upon beforehand, +and the real settling of the <i>Jewish</i> disposition of Jesus. Still the +forms had to be gone through. So Jesus is sent with the decision of Annas +in the thongs on His hands to Caiaphas, high priest that year by the grace +of the old intriguer Annas, and by Roman appointment. The thing must be +done up in proper shape. These folks are great sticklers for proper forms.</p> + +<p>Probably it is across a courtyard they go to another part of the same pile +of buildings or palace. Caiaphas, too, is ready, unusual though the hour +is. With him are several members of the senate, the official body in +control of affairs. The plans have been carefully worked out. This night +work will get things in shape before the dreaded crowds of the morrow can +be aroused. Now begins the examination here. These plotters have been so +absorbed in getting Jesus actually into their power that they seem to have +over-looked the details of making out a strong case against Him. They +really didn't need a case to secure their end, yet they seem to want to +keep up the forms, probably not because of any remnants of supposed +conscience left unseared, but to swing the bothersome, fanatical crowds +that must always be reckoned with. Now they deliberately try to find men +who will lie about Jesus' words, and swear to it. They find some willing +enough--money would fix that--but not bright enough to make their stories +hang together. At last some one brings up a remark made three years before +by Jesus about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days. It +is hard to see how they might expect to make anything out of that, for in +the remark, as they understood it, He had proposed to undertake the +rebuilding of the famous structure if they should destroy it. And then +they can't even agree here. Clearly they're hard pushed. Something must be +done. Precious time is slipping away. The thing must be in shape by dawn +if they are to get it through before the crowds get hold of it.</p> + +<p>All this time Jesus stands in silence, doubtless with those eyes of His +turned now upon Caiaphas, now on the others. His presence disturbed them +in more ways than one. That great calm, pure face must have been an +irritant to their jaded consciences. Suddenly the presiding officer stands +up and dramatically cries out, as though astonished, "Answerest thou +nothing? Canst thou not hear these charges against Thee?" Still that +silence of lip, and those great eyes looking into His enemies' faces. Then +comes the question lurking underneath all the time, put in the form of a +solemn oath to the prisoner, "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou +tell us whether Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." Thus appealed to, +Jesus at once replies, "<i>I am</i>." And then, knowing full well the effect of +the reply, He adds, "<i>Nevertheless</i>--notwithstanding your evident purpose +regarding Me--the Son of Man will be sitting at the right hand of Power, +and coming in the clouds of heaven, and ye shall see it."</p> + +<p>In supposed righteous horror Caiaphas tore his garments, and cried, "What +further need is there of witnesses? Behold you have heard His blasphemy. +What verdict do you give?" Back come the eager cries, "He deserves +death--Guilty." So the second session closes with the verdict of guilty +agreed upon. Yet this was not official. The senate could meet only in +daylight hours. The propriety of form they were so eager for requires them +to wait until dawn should break, and then they could technically give the +decisive verdict now agreed upon. While they are waiting, the intense +hatred of Jesus in their hearts and their own cruel thirstings find outlet +upon Jesus' person. They--spat--in--His--face, and struck Him, with open +hand and shut fist. He is blind-folded, and then struck by one and another +with derisive demands that He use His prophetic skill to tell who had been +hitting Him. And this goes on for possibly a couple of hours before dawn +permits the next step, soldiers vying with senators in doing Him greatest +insult.</p> + + + +<h4>Held Steady by Great Love.</h4> + + +<p>Meanwhile a scene is being enacted within ear-shot of Jesus that hurts Him +more than these vulgar insults. Peter is getting into bad shape. John was +acquainted in the high priest's house-hold, and, going directly in without +striking his colors, is not disturbed. Peter gets as far as the gateway, +leading through a sort of alley into the open courtyard, around which on +the four sides the palace was built. Here, as a stranger, he was refused +admittance, until John comes to speak a word for him. In the center of the +open court a fire was burning to relieve the cold of the night, and about +this was gathered a mixed crowd of soldiers and servants and attendants. +Peter goes over to the fire, and, mingling with the others, sits warming +himself, probably with a studied carelessness. The maid who let him in, +coming over to the fire, looks intently into his face, and then says, "You +belong to the Nazarene, too." Peter stammers out an embarrassed, mixed up +denial, "I don't know what you mean--I don't understand--what do you say?"</p> + +<p>Taken unawares, poor Peter mingles a lie with the denial. As soon as +possible he moves away from the fire toward the entrance. It's a bit warm +there--for him. He remembered afterwards that just then the crowing of a +cock fell upon his ear. Again one of the serving-maids notices him and +says to those standing about, "This man was with Jesus." This time the +denial comes sharp and fiat, "I don't know the man." And to give good +color to his words, and fit his surroundings, he adds a bit of profanity +to it.</p> + +<p>An hour later, as he moves uneasily about, he is standing again by the +fire. Something about him seems to make him a marked man. Evidently he has +been talking, too. For now a man looking at him, said, "You belong to this +Jesus. I can tell by the twist of your tongue." Peter promptly says, "No." +Lying comes quicker now. But at once another speaks up, who was kin to the +man that temporarily lost his ear through Peter's sword. "Why," he said, +"certainly I saw you with Him in the garden." Again the denial that he +knew Jesus mingled freely with curses and oath. And even as he spoke the +air was caught again with the cock's shrill cry. And then Jesus, in the +midst of the vulgarity being vented upon Him, turned those wondrous eyes +upon Peter. What a look must that have been of sorrow, of reproach, and of +tenderest love. It must surely have broken Peter's heart. The hot tears +rushing up for vent were his answer. Those tears caught the light of love +in that look, as he goes away into the night and weeps bitterly. Those +bitter tears were as small, warm rain to a new growth within.</p> + + + +<h4>An Obstinate Roman.</h4> + + +<p>And now the impatient leaders detect the first streaks of gray coming up +in the east. The national council can now properly meet. Like their two +chiefs, these men are prompt. The whips had been out over the city +drumming up the members for this extraordinary session. There seems to +have been a full attendance. Jesus, still bound, is led through the +streets; followed by the mixed rabble, to the meeting hall, probably in +the neighborhood of the temple. He is brought in and faces these men. How +some of those eyes must have gloated out their green leering! Here are the +men He had not hesitated to denounce openly with the severest invective +ever spoken.</p> + +<p>Some time is spent in consultation. The difficulty here is to fix upon a +charge upon which they can themselves agree, and which will also be +sufficient for the desired action by the Roman governor. It was a tough +task. They fail in it. These men divided into groups that were ever at +swords' points. There were utter opposites in beliefs and policies. But +their common hate of Jesus rises for the time above their hatred for each +other. The charge must appeal to Pilate, for only he has power of capital +punishment, and nothing but Jesus' blood will quench their thirst.</p> + +<p>Their consultation results in another attempt to question Jesus in the +hope of getting some word that can be used. The president goes back to his +former question, "If Thou art the Christ, tell us." Jesus reminds them of +the lack of sincerity in their questionings. They would not believe Him, +nor answer His questions. Then He repeats the solemn words spoken in the +night session, "From henceforth shall the Son of Man be seated at the +right hand of the power of God." Eagerly they all blurt out, "Art Thou +then the Son of God?" Back comes the quiet, steady reply, "Ye say that I +am," equal to a strong yes. Instantly they decide fully and formally upon +His condemnation. So closes the third phase of the Jewish examination. The +death sentence is fixed upon. The thing has been formally fixed up. The +ground is now cleared for taking Him to Pilate for His death sentence.</p> + +<p>It is still early morning when Jesus is taken to Pilate. It was an +imposing procession of the leading men of the nation, headed very likely +by Caiaphas, that now led Jesus across the city, through its narrow +streets, up to the palace of the Roman governor. Jesus is conducted into +Pilate's hall of judgment within, but, with their scrupulous regard for +the letter of their law, these principals would not enter his palace on +that day, but remained without. They seem to be expecting Pilate to send +the prisoner back at once with their death sentence endorsed.</p> + +<p>To their surprise and disgust,<sup><a href="#fnA">A</a></sup> Pilate comes out himself and wants to +know the charge against the prisoner. They are not prepared for this. It +is their weak point, and has been from the first. Their bold, sullen +answer evades the question, while insisting on what they want, "If He were +not a criminal we would not have brought Him to thee." They didn't want +his opinion, but his power, his consent to their plot. But Pilate doesn't +propose to be used as such a convenience. With scorn he tells them that if +they propose to judge the case they may. This wrings from them the +humiliating reminder that the power of capital punishment is withheld from +them by their Roman rulers, and nothing less will satisfy them here. Then +they begin a series of verbal charges. They are all of a political nature, +for only such would this Roman recognize. This man had been perverting the +nation, forbidding tribute to Caesar and calling Himself a King.</p> + +<p>It takes no keenness for Pilate to see the hollowness of this sudden +loyalty to Caesar. He returns to the beautiful marble judgment hall, and +has Jesus brought to him again. He looks into Jesus' face. He is keen +enough to see that here is no political schemer. At most probably a +religious enthusiast, or reformer, or something as harmless from his +standpoint. "Art <i>Thou</i> the King of the Jews?" he asks. Jesus' answer +suggests that there was a kindliness in that face. If there be a desire +for truth here He will satisfy it. This political charge had been made +outside while He was within. "Do you really want to know about Me, or are +you merely repeating something you have heard?" He asks, with a gentle +earnestness.</p> + +<p>But Pilate at once repudiates any personal interest. "Am I a <i>Jew</i>?" he +asks, with plain contempt on that word. "Thine own people are accusing +thee. What hast Thou done?" Then comes that great answer, "My kingdom is +not of this world, if so I would be resisting these leaders and these +present circumstances would all be different. But my kingdom is not of +your sort or theirs." Again there likely came a bit of softening and +curious interest in Pilate's face, as he asks, "Art Thou really a <i>King</i> +then?" Jesus replies, "To this end have I been born, and to this end am I +come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Every one +that is of the truth heareth my voice." Pilate wonders what this has to do +with being a king. With a weary, impatient contempt, he says, "<i>Truth</i>? +What is that?" The accused seems to be an enthusiast, a dreamer, yet +withal there certainly was a fine nobility about Him. Certainly He was +quite harmless politically.</p> + +<p>Leaving Him there, again he goes to the leaders waiting impatiently +outside. To their utter astonishment and rage he says, "I find no fault in +this man." It is the judgment of a keen, critical, worldly Roman; an +acquittal, the first acquittal. The waiting crowd bursts out at once in a +hot, fanatical tumult of shouted protests. Is all their sleepless planning +to be disturbed by this Roman heathen? The prisoner was constantly +stirring up the people all through Judea and Galilee. He was a dangerous +man. Looking and listening, with his contempt for them plainly in his +face, and yet a dread of their wild fanaticism in his heart, Pilate's ear +catches that word Galilee. "Is the man a Galilean?" "Yes." Well, here's an +easy way of getting rid of the troublesome matter. Herod, the ruler of +Galilee, was in the city at his palace, come to attend the festival. It +would be a bit of courtesy that he might appreciate to refer the case to +him, and so it would be off his own hands. And so the order is given.</p> + + + +<h4>A Savage Duel.</h4> + + +<p>Once more Jesus is led through these narrow streets, with the jeering +rabble ever increasing in size and the national heads in the lead. They +are having a lot of wholly unexpected trouble, but they are determined not +to be cheated of their prey. And now they are before Herod. This is the +murderer of John. He is glad to see Jesus. There has been an eager +curiosity to see the man of whom so much was said, and he hoped to have +his morbid appetite for the sensational satisfied with a display of Jesus' +power. He plies Him with questions, while the chief priests with fierce +vehemence stand accusing Him, and asking for His condemnation.</p> + +<p>But for this red-handed man Jesus has no word. To him rare light had come +and been recognized, and then had been deliberately put out beyond recall. +He has gone steadily down into slimiest slush since that. Now, with +studied insolence, he treats this silent man with utmost contempt. His +soldiers and retainers mock and deride, dressing Him in gorgeous apparel +in mockery of His kingly claims. When they weary of the sport He is again +dismissed to Pilate, acquitted. It is the second mocking and the second +acquittal.</p> + +<p>Again the weary tramping of the streets, with the chief priests' rage +burning to the danger point. Twice they have been foiled. Now the matter +must be <i>forced</i> through, and quickly, too, ere the crowd that are +friendly have gotten the news. They hurry Jesus along and make all haste +back to Pilate. Now begins the sixth and last phase of that awful night. +Things now hasten to a climax. The character of Pilate comes out plainly +here. He really feared these wildly fanatical Jews whom he ruled with a +contemptuous disgust undisguised. Three times since his rule began their +extreme fanaticism had led to open riot and bloodshed, and once to an +appeal to the emperor, by whose favor he held his position. His hold of +the office was shaky indeed if the emperor must be bothered with these +superstitious details about their religion. The policy he pursued here was +but a piece of the whole Roman fabric. Yet had he but had the rugged +strength to live up to his honest conviction----. But then, that is the +one question of life everywhere and always. He failed in the test, as do +thousands. Unconsciously he was touching the quivering center of a whole +world's life, and so his action stands out in boldest outline.</p> + +<p>He comes out now and sums up the case. He had examined the prisoner and +found no fault touching their charges of perverting the people. Herod, +their own native ruler, who was supposed to know thoroughly their peculiar +views, had also fully acquitted Him. Now, as a concession to them, he +will disgrace this man by a public scourging and let him go as harmless. +Instantly the air is filled with their fierce shrill cries, "Away with +Him: Away with Him."</p> + +<p>But Pilate seems determined to do the best he can for Jesus, without +risking an actual break with these fanatical Orientals such as might +endanger his own position. It was usual at feast times to release to the +people some one who had been imprisoned for a political offense. The +crowds, prompted by the chief priests, doubtless, begin to ask for the +usual favor. Pilate brings forward a man named Barabbas, who was a robber +and murderer and charged with leading an insurrection against Roman rule. +Meanwhile, as he waits, a messenger comes up to him and repeats a message +from his wife. She has been suffering much in dreams and urges that he +have nothing to do with "that righteous man."</p> + +<p>Apparently Pilate brings forward the two men, the one a robber and +murderer, the other with purity and goodness stamped on every line of His +face. It is a dramatic moment. "Which of the two will you choose?" he +asks. It is the appeal of a heathen to the better nature of these Jews, +called the people of God. Quick as a flash of lightning the word shot from +their lips and into his face, "<i>Barabbas!</i>" "What, then, shall I do with +Jesus, who is called Christ?" He is weakening now. His question shows it. +They are keen to see it and push their advantage. Again the words shoot +out as bullets from their hot lips, "Crucify Him: crucify Him." Still he +withstands them. "Why? What evil has He done? I find no fault in Him. To +please you I will chastise Him and release Him." But they have him on the +run now. At once the air is filled with a confused jangle of loud shrill +voices, "Away with Him! Give us Barabbas! Crucify! Crucify."</p> + +<p>Apparently he yields. Barabbas is released. Jesus is led away to be +scourged by the soldiers. His clothing is removed, and He is bent over, +with thongs on the wrists drawn down, leaving the bare back uppermost and +tense. The scourging was with bunches of leather strips with jagged pieces +of bone and lead fastened in the ends. The blows meant for the back, even +if laid on by a reluctant hand, would strike elsewhere, including the +face. But reluctance seems absent here. Then occurs another, a third of +those scenes of coarse vulgarity, horrid mockings, based on His kingly +claims. The whole band of soldiers is called. Some old garments of royal +purple are put upon Jesus. One man plaits a crown of the thorns that grow +so large in Palestine, and with no easy gesture places it upon His head. A +reed is placed in His hand. Then they bow the knee in turn, with "Hail! +King of the Jews," and spit in His face, and rain blows down upon the +thorn-crown. All the while their coarse jests and shouts of derisive +laughter fill the air. Surely one could never tell the story were he not +held in the grip of a strong purpose.</p> + +<p>But now Pilate springs a surprise. The scourging might be preliminary to +crucifixion or a substitute. Again Jesus is brought forward, as arrayed by +the mocking soldiers. There must have been an unapproachable majesty in +that great face, as so bedecked, with the indescribable suffering lines +ever deepening, He stands before them with that wondrous calm still in +those sleepless eyes. Pilate seems caught by the great spirit of Jesus +dominant under such treatment. He points to Him and says, "Behold the +Man!" Surely this utter humiliation will satisfy their strange hate.</p> + +<p>Realizing that their fight is not yet won as they had thought, they make +the air hideous with their shouts, "Crucify--crucify--crucify." Anger and +disgust crowd for place in Pilate, as, with a contemptuous sneer, he says, +"<i>You</i> crucify Him. <i>I</i> find no fault in Him." It would be illegal, but it +would not be the first illegal thing. But these men are bound to get all +they want from their weakening governor. One of the leaders sharply spoke +up, "We have a law, and by our law He ought to die because He pretends to +be the Son of God." The Roman custom was to respect the laws of their +subject-peoples. All pretense of a political charge is now gone.</p> + +<p>Pilate is startled. The sense of fear that has been strong with him +intensifies. That face of Jesus had impressed him. His wife's message +disturbed him. Now that inward feeling that this man was being wronged +grips him anew. At once he has Him led into his judgment hall for another +private interview. Looking into that face again with strangely mingling +emotions, he puts the question, "Whence art Thou?" But those lips refuse +an answer. The time for speech is past. Angered by the silence on the part +of the man he had been moved to help, Pilate hotly says, "Speakest Thou +not to <i>Me</i>? Knowest Thou not I have the power to release or to crucify?" +Then this strangely masterful Man speaks in very quiet tones, as though +pitying His judge, "Thou wouldst have no power against Me, except it were +given thee from above: therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath +greater sin."</p> + +<p>Again Pilate comes out to the waiting crowd more determined than ever to +release Jesus. But the leaders of the mob take a new tack. They know the +governor's sensitive nerve. "If thou release this man thou art not +Caesar's friend. Every one that maketh himself a king speaketh +against Caesar." That word "Caesar" was a magic word. Its bur catches +and sticks at once. It was their master-stroke. Yet it cost them +dear. Pilate instantly brings Jesus out and sits down on the +judgment seat. The thing must be settled now once for all. As Jesus +again faces them he says, "<i>Behold!--your King.</i>" Again the hot shouts, +"Away--Away--Crucify--Crucify." And again the question. "Shall I crucify +your King?"</p> + +<p>Now comes the answer, wrung out by the bitterness of their hate, that +throws aside all the traditional hopes of their nation, "<i>We have no king +but Caesar</i>." Having forced that word from their lips, Pilate quits the +prolonged duelling.</p> + +<p>Yet to appease that inner voice that would not be stilled--maybe, too, +for his wife's sake, he indulges in more dramatics. He washes his hands in +a basin of water, with the words, "I am innocent of the blood of this +righteous man. See ye to it." Back come the terrible words, "His blood be +on us and on our children." Surely it has been! Then Jesus is surrendered +to their will. They have gotten what they asked, but at the sacrifice of +their most fondly cherished national tradition and with an awful heritage. +Pilate has yielded, but held them by the throat in doing it to compel +words that savagely wounded their pride to utter. The savage duel is over.</p> + + + +<h4>Victory.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus is turned over to the soldiers for the execution of the sentence. +His own garments are replaced, and once more He is the central figure in a +street procession, this time carrying the cross to which He has been +condemned. His physical strength seems in danger of giving way under the +load, after the terrible strain of that long night. The soldiers seize a +man from the country passing by and force him to carry the cross. As they +move along, the crowd swells to a great multitude, including many women. +These give expression to their pitying regard for Jesus.</p> + +<p>Turning about, Jesus speaks to them in words that reveal the same clear +mind and masterly control as ever. "Daughters of Jerusalem, be weeping for +yourselves and your babes, rather than for Me. The days are coming when +it shall be said, 'Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never bare, +and the breasts that never gave suck.' If they have done these things +while the sap of national life still flows, what will be done to them when +the dried-up, withered stage of their national life is reached!"</p> + +<p>Now the chosen place is reached, outside the city wall, probably a rise of +ground, like a mound or small hill. And the soldiers settle down to their +work. There are to be two others crucified at the same time. A drink of +stuff meant to stupefy and so ease the pain of torture was offered Jesus, +but refused. And now the cross is gotten ready. The upright beam is laid +upon the ground handy to the hole in which the end of it will slip, and +the cross-piece is nailed in place. Jesus is stripped and laid upon the +cross with His arms, outstretched on the cross-piece. A sharp-pointed +spike is driven through the palm of each hand and through the feet. The +hands are also tied with ropes as additional security. There is a small +piece half-way up the upright where some of the body's weight may be +supported.</p> + +<p>As the soldiers drive the nails, Jesus' voice is heard in prayer, "Father, +forgive them; they know not what they do." Then strong arms seize the +upper end, and, lifting, shift the end of the cross into the hole, and so +steady it into an upright position. It is nine o'clock, and the deed has +been done. The soldiers, having finished their task, now go after their +pay. Jesus' garments are divided up among them, but when the outer coat +is reached it is found to be an unusually good garment, woven in one +piece. It was the love gift of some friend likely. So they pitch dice, and +in a few moments one of them is clutching it greedily as his own.</p> + +<p>As quickly as the cross is in position the crowds are reading the +inscription which has been nailed to the top to indicate the charge +against the man. It was in three languages, Latin the official tongue, +Greek the world tongue, and Aramaic the native tongue. Every man there +read in one or other of these tongues, "<i>The King of the Jews</i>." +Instantly the Jewish leaders object, but Pilate contemptuously dismisses +their objection. This inscription was his last fling at them. And so Jesus +was crucified as a King. There He is up above them all, while the great +multitude stands gazing.</p> + +<p>Now begins the last, coarse, derisive jeering. Some of the crowd call out +to Jesus, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, +save Thyself; if Thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross." The +chief priests have dignified the occasion with their presence. Now they +mockingly sneer out their taunts, "He saved others; but He can't save +Himself. He is the King of Israel. Let Him come down from the cross and we +will believe on Him." The two others hanging by His side, in their pain +and distress, join in the taunting cries, and the soldiers add their +jibes.</p> + +<p>But through it all Jesus is silent. There He hangs with those eyes +watching the people to whom His great heart was going out, for whom His +great life was going out, calm, majestic, masterful, tender. The sight +affects at least one of those before unfriendly. The man hanging by His +side is caught by this face and spirit. He rebukes the other criminal, +reminding him that they were getting their just deserts, but "This Man +hath done nothing amiss." Then turning so far as he could to Jesus, he +said, with a simplicity of faith that must have been so grateful to Jesus, +"Jesus, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom." Instantly comes the +reply, "Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with Me in +Paradise."</p> + +<p>In the crowds were many of Jesus' personal acquaintances, including women +from Galilee. Close by the cross stood His mother and aunt and faithful +John and a few others of those dear to Him. Most likely John is supporting +Jesus' mother with his arms. Turning His eyes toward the group, Jesus +speaks to His mother in tones revealing His love, "Woman, behold thy son;" +and then to John, "Behold thy mother." <i>So</i> He gives His mother a son to +take His own place in caring for her, and to His friend John this heritage +of love. John understands, and from that hour the ties between these two +were of the closest and tenderest sort.</p> + +<p>So the hours drag along until noon. And now a strange thing occurs that +must have had a startling effect. At the time of day when the sunlight is +brightest a strange darkness came over all the scene, the sun's light +being obscured or failing wholly. And for three hours this strange, weird +spectacle continues. Then the hushed silence is broken by an agonizing cry +from the lips of Jesus, "My God--My God--why--didst--Thou--forsake--Me?" +One of the bewildered bystanders thinks He is calling for Elijah, and +another wonders if something startling will yet occur.</p> + +<p>Jesus speaks again--"I--thirst" and some one near by with sponge and stick +reaches up to moisten His lips. Then a shout, a loud cry of <i>victory</i> +bursts in one word from those lips, "<i>It is finished</i>." Then softly +breathing out the last words, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My +spirit," and bowing His head, Jesus, masterful, kingly to the last, +<i>yielded up</i> His spirit.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch13"> +<h3>The Resurrection: Gravity Upward</h3> + + + +<h4>A New Morning.</h4> + + +<p>It was near the dawning of a new morning, the morning of a new day +destined to be a great day. While yet dark there come a number of women +out of the city gate toward the tomb where Jesus' body had been laid. They +carry spices and ointment. With woman's ever tender thoughtfulness they +are bent upon some kindly service for that precious body. They had +followed up the burial and noted the arrangements with a view to this +morning's early service. Their whole thought is absorbed with a tomb and a +body and a bit of loving attention. They wonder as they come along whom +they can get to roll the heavy stone over into its groove at the side of +the opening. Mary Magdalene is in the lead. With her in the darkness is +her friend Mary, the mother of John and James. Others come along a little +behind, in small groups.</p> + +<p>As they get near to the place the keen eyes of Mary Magdalene notice at +once with a quick start that the stone is rolled away. Somebody has been +tampering with the tomb in the night. Leaving her companion, she starts +back on a run into the city and finds Peter, and tells him that the Lord +has been taken away, and they don't know where He has been laid. Peter, +too, is startled. He gets John, and the two start back on a run.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the other women have gone on toward the tomb. As they approach +they are startled and awed to find a man there, with the glorious +appearance of an angel, sitting upon the stone. To these awe-stricken +women this angel being quietly said, "Do not be afraid. I know you are +looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen, as He +told you. Come and see the place where He lay." And as they gaze with wide +open eyes, he adds, "Go quickly and tell His disciples, and be sure you +tell Peter, that He is risen from the dead, and lo, He goeth before you +into Galilee. You will meet Him there. Lo, I have told you." But the women +were panic-stricken, and ran away down the road, and told no one except +some of the apostles. And to them their story seemed ridiculous. They +refused to believe such talk.</p> + +<p>And now Peter and John come breathless to the tomb. John is in the lead. +Either he is younger or swifter of foot. As he comes up he stops at the +opening of the tomb, and, with a bit of reverential awe, gazes within. He +can see the linen cloths lying; but the body they had encased is clearly +not in them. Peter comes up, and steps at once inside for a closer +inspection. There the linen cloths are, just as they had enswathed the +body, but flattened down, showing the absence of anything inside their +folds. The napkin that had been about the head was folded up neatly and +laid over to one side. Then John enters, and as he continues looking +conviction comes to him that Jesus has indeed risen. Wondering greatly at +this thing, wholly unexpected by them, they go off to their homes in the +city.</p> + +<p>And now another little group of the women come up, and are perplexed in +turn as the others, the stone away, the body of Jesus not there. As they +stand with staring eyes and fearing hearts, two men unexpectedly appear in +clothing that dazzles the women's eyes. Frightened, they bow down before +these men, who seem to be angels. But the men quickly reassure them with +their words. Why were they seeking a living One in a tomb? Jesus was not +there. He was risen. And they remind the women of Jesus' own words about +being killed and then rising again. As the men talk the women remember the +Master's words, and wonderingly see their meaning now, and hurry away to +tell their friends the great news.</p> + + + +<h4>Jesus Seeking Out Peter.</h4> + + +<p>And now Mary Magdalene has gotten back to the tomb. In her zeal for the +safety of that precious body, she had made quite a journey into the city +and back. Her zeal took her quickly to Peter. Her sorrow makes the way +back longer. She had been first to come, but had not heard the news that +came to her companions. Now she stands at the open tomb weeping. She +stoops and looks in to see if it can be really true that <i>He</i> is not +there. To her surprise two angel beings are seated, one at each end of +where Jesus' body had been lying. They say to her, "Why are you weeping?" +She replies, "Because they have taken away <i>my Lord</i>, and I know not where +they have laid Him." Turning back in her grief as the words are spoken, +she sees some one else standing. Again the same question by this One. Why +was she weeping? Whom was she looking for? Her eyes are blinded with the +rain of tears. This is likely the man in charge of the garden wherein this +family tomb was.</p> + +<p>With earnest tones she says, "Sir, if <i>thou</i> didst carry Him away, tell me +where thou didst lay Him and <i>I</i> will have Him taken away." Then that one +word came to her ears, her name, in that unmistakable voice, "Mary." +Quicker than a flash came the response, "<i>Oh, my Master</i>!" That same +wondrous, quiet voice continues, "Do not continue to be clinging to Me. I +am not yet ascended to my Father. Be going to my brethren and tell them I +ascend to My Father and your Father, My God and your God." And Mary +quickly departs on her glad errand for Him. She was the first to see His +face and hear His voice, and have her hand upon His person, and do +something at His bidding.</p> + +<p>And now the other women who had been at the tomb in the garden and fled +away are on the road approaching the city. As they hurry along, to their +utter amazement--here is Jesus in the road approaching them. With a glad +smile in His eyes, the old, sweet voice speaks out in rich tones the usual +simple salutation of greeting, "Good morning." At once they are down on +their knees and faces, holding His feet and worshipping. And Jesus softly +says, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brethren to meet Me in Galilee, up by +the old blue waters of the sea."</p> + +<p>While these incidents were occurring, all in such short time, something +else is going on of a different sort. The Roman soldiers guarding that +tomb had had a great shock. They had been suddenly displaced by another +guard. The sacred Roman seal had been ruthlessly broken, the stone rolled +back from the opening, and some one sat upon it. Their bewildered, +stupefied senses heard the movements and were aware of a strange, blinding +light. Then they knew that the body they were to guard was no longer +within. That was about as much as they could get together. They hurry to +town and tell the chief priests. Quickly the chief priests gather their +clique to confer about this new phase. Was there ever such mulish +obstinacy? No thought of candid investigation seems to enter their mind. +The way of covering this new difficulty is after all easy. Money will buy +the soldiers, and they will do as they are bid. It took a good bit of +gold. The soldiers probably were keen to know how to work so good a mine. +And the story was freely circulated that the body was stolen while the +soldiers slept.</p> + +<p>Peter has gone down the road from the garden toward the city after having +satisfied Himself that Jesus was not in the tomb. He was <i>wondering</i> what +all this meant. John, lighter of foot, had hurried ahead to his home in +the city, very likely to tell the news to Jesus' mother, his own new +mother. Peter plods slowly along. There is no need of haste now. He is +thinking, wondering, thinking. It was still early morning, with the sweet +dew on the ground, and the air so still. Down past some big trees maybe he +was walking, deeply absorbed, when--Somebody is by his side. It is the +Master! But we must leave them alone together. That was a sacred +interview, meant only for Peter.</p> + + + +<h4>Made Known in the Breaking of Bread.</h4> + + +<p>The news now quickly spread; the two stories, that of the soldiers, that +of the disciples. Folks listened to the one they preferred. Everybody was +discussing this new startling appendix to the crucifixion. A bit later in +the day two others were walking along one of the country roads leading out +of the city, toward a village a few miles away. They jog along slowly as +men who are heavy footed with disappointment. They are intently absorbed +in conversation, eagerly discussing and questioning about something that +clearly puzzled them.</p> + +<p>A Stranger, unrecognized, overtakes them and joins in their conversation. +He asks, "What is this that you are so concerned about?" So absorbed are +they with their thoughts, that at His question they stand still, looking +sad and unable for a moment to answer. Where would they begin where there +was so much? Then one of them says, "Do you lodge by yourself in the city, +and even then do not know the things that have been going on there?" The +Stranger draws them out. "What things?" He says. Thus encouraged, they +find relief in unburdening their hearts. It was all about Jesus, a man of +great power in word and deed, before God and all the people; the great +cruelty with which the rulers had secured a sentence of death for +Him--and--crucified--Him.</p> + +<p>"We were, however, hoping," they said, "that He was the One who was about +to redeem the nation. And now it is the third day since these things +occurred. And most surprising word was brought by certain women that has +greatly stirred us. They went early to the tomb, and did not find His +body, but saw a vision of angels who positively said that He was alive. +And some of our party went there and found it true as the women said. +But--they did not see <i>Him</i>."</p> + +<p>Then the Stranger began speaking in a quiet, earnest way that caught them +at once. "O foolish men, so slow you are in heart to believe the messages +of the old prophets! Was it not needful that the Christ should suffer +these very things and to enter into His glory?" Then He began freely to +quote passages from all through their sacred writings. As they walk along +listening to this wonderful explanation, which now sounds so simple from +this Man's lips, they come up to their home in the village. The Stranger +seemed inclined to go on. But they earnestly urge Him to come in and get +some refreshment and stay over night. He may talk more. They have heard no +such winsome talk since Jesus was with them.</p> + +<p>He yields. And, as they gather over the simple evening meal, the Stranger +picks up the loaf, and looking up repeats the simple grace, and breaking +the loaf reaches the pieces over. But as their hands go out for the bread, +their eyes turn toward the Stranger's face. Instantly they are +spell-bound--<i>that face</i>--why--it is the <i>Master!!</i> Then He is not there. +And they said to each other, "Did you ever hear such talking?" "My heart +was burning all the time He was talking." "And mine, too." Then they +hasten back to the city. Those miles are so much shorter now! They go +straight to the house where they have been meeting.</p> + +<p>"<i>Even So Send I You</i>."</p> + +<p>Here were gathered most of the apostles and several others. Eagerly they +were discussing the exciting news of the day. Some <i>know</i> that Jesus has +risen. Mary Magdalene, with eyes dancing, says, "I <i>saw</i> Him." But some +are full of doubt and questionings. How <i>could</i> it be? The door is +guarded, for if the frenzy of the national leaders should spread, <i>they</i> +come next. There's a knock at the door. Cautiously it is opened. Two dusty +but radiant faces appear. "The Lord is risen <i>indeed</i>," they exclaim. And +then they tell the story of the afternoon and His wondrous explanation and +of that meal.</p> + +<p>As they are talking, all at once--who's that?--right in their midst. It +looks like Jesus. There is that face with those unmistakable marks. And +you can see their eyes quickly searching between the sandal straps. Yes, +it looks like Him. But it can't be. Their eyes befool them. It's been a +hard day for them. It must be a spirit. As they start back, there comes in +that voice they can never forget, the old quiet "Good evening."--"Peace +unto you." Then He holds out His hands and feet, saying, "Do not be +troubled--it is I Myself--handle Me, and make sure. A spirit does not have +flesh and bones as you see that I have." Then He said, "Have you something +to eat?" and He ate a bit of broiled fish.</p> + +<p>Reassured by such simple practical evidence, a glad peace fills their +hearts and faces. They talk together a bit. Then Jesus rising, said again, +"Peace unto you--as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." Then He +breathed strongly upon them, saying in very quiet, solemn tones, "Receive +ye the Holy Spirit--Whosesoever sins ye forgive they are forgiven. +Whosesoever ye retain they are retained." And again, as they look, He is +not there.</p> + +<p>But one man was absent that new Sabbath evening hour. Thomas simply could +not believe, and would not, without the most sane, common-sense evidence. +He missed much by not being at that meeting. The next Sabbath evening he +is present with the others. Again the Master comes as before, unexpectedly +standing in their midst, as they talk together about Him. And now Thomas +is fully satisfied after his week of doubting. Some of us folks will +always be grateful for Thomas.</p> + +<p>Some time later, there occurs that second wondrous draught of fishes, at +the command of the unrecognized Stranger, one morning at the breaking of +the day, and the talk with Peter and the others as they walk along the old +shore of the sea. And to James, who seems to have been a leader by dint of +a strong personality, He appears.</p> + +<p>And one day when there was an unusually large meeting of His followers, as +many as five hundred, He came as before and was recognized. And then at +the last upon Olives' top came the goodbye meeting and message.</p> + +<p>It is surely worthy of remark that the Bethany home is not represented at +either cross or tomb. Many of His dear friends are named in connection +with both, but not these. Here are some of those dearest to Him, and to +whom He is most dear. Here is one, a woman, who had discerned more keenly +ahead than any other that He was to die and why. She had understood the +minor strains of the old Hebrew oratorio as none other. She had learned +at His feet. And here, too, was one who knew death, and the life beyond, +and then a return again to this life. It was not indifference that kept +them away. They loved tenderly, and were tenderly loved. Their absence is +surely most significant. Mary's ointment had already been used. This +morning in glad ecstasy of spirit she and her brother and sister wait. +<i>They know.</i></p> + + + +<h4>Gravity Upward.</h4> + + +<p>Two things stand out very clearly about Jesus' resurrection. It was not +expected by these followers, but received at first with incredulity and +doubt and stubborn unwillingness to accept it without clear undisputable +proof. And then that they were thoroughly satisfied that He was actually +back again with them, with His personal identity thoroughly established; +so satisfied that their lives were wholly controlled by the consciousness +of a risen Jesus. Sacrifice, suffering, torture, and violent death were +yielded to gladly for His sake.</p> + +<p>A new morning broke that morning, the morning of a new day, a new sort of +day. That resurrection day became a new day to them and to all Jesus' +followers. The old Sabbath day was a <i>rest</i>-day. God Sabbathed from His +work of creation. This new day is more, it is a <i>victory</i>-day. Every new +coming of it spells out Jesus' victory over sin and death and our victory +in Him. The old Hebrew rest-day came at the week's close. The new +victory-day comes at the week's beginning. With the fine tingle of +victory in our spirits we are ever at the beginning of a new life and new +victory and great things to come.</p> + +<p>Did Jesus rise? Or, was He raised? Both are said of Him. Both are true. He +was raised by the power of the Father. Every bit of His human life was +under the direction and control of His Father. Every act of His from first +to last was in the strength of the Father. This last act was so. The +Father's vindication of His Son was seen in the power that raised Him up +from out of the domain of death. He was raised.</p> + +<p><i>Jesus rose</i> from the dead. The action was in accord with the law of His +life. He rose at will by the moral gravity of His character. He had gone +down, now He lets Himself rebound up. The language used of His death is +very striking. No one of the four descriptions of the death upon the cross +says that He <i>died</i>. The words commonly used to describe the death of +others are not used of Jesus. Very different language is used. Matthew +says, "He dismissed His spirit." Mark and Luke each say, "He breathed out" +His life. John says, "He delivered up His spirit."</p> + +<p>His dying was voluntary. Not only the time of it and the manner of it, but +the fact of it was of His own choosing. The record never suggests that +death overcame Him. He yielded to it of His own strong accord. He was not +overcome by death. He could not be, for sin having no hold within His +being, death could have none. Physical death is one of the logical results +of the sin within. Jesus yielded up His spirit. It was a free, voluntary +act. He had explained months before that so it would be. "I lay down My +life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down +of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take +it again. This commandment I received from My Father." This being so, the +return to life followed the same voluntary course. Having accomplished the +purpose in dying, He now recalled His spirit into the body and rises by +His own choice.</p> + +<p>Man's true gravity is toward a center upward. Sin's gravity is toward a +center downward. When an ordinary man, a sinful man, dies, he is overcome +by the logical result of the sin in himself. He is overcome by the moral +gravity downward of His sin. He has no choice. His own moral gravity apart +from sin is upward. But that is overbalanced by the downward pull of the +sin ingrained in his very being. And this quite apart from his attitude +toward the sin.</p> + +<p>In Jesus there was no sin. Being free of it, He rose at will. "It was not +possible that He should be held by death," for it had no hold upon Him. +His gravity was upward. For a purpose, a great strong purpose, He yielded +to death's embrace. Now that purpose being achieved, He quietly lets +Himself up toward the natural center of gravity of His life.</p> + + + +<h4>The Life Side of Death.</h4> + + +<p>Clearly Jesus' body had undergone changes through death and resurrection. +It is the same to outer appearance, so far as <i>personal identity</i> is +concerned. The doubting, questioning disciples handle His person, they +know His face, they recognize His voice. He eats with them and talks with +them and moves in their midst as before. Even the doubter, stubborn in his +demand for tangible, physical evidence, is convinced by the feel of his +hands that this is indeed Jesus back again. Further, He moves about among +them unrecognized till He chooses to be known. Yet this may have been His +power over them rather than any changed quality in His person.</p> + +<p>But mark that the limitations of space and of material obstructions are +gone after the resurrection. He no longer needs to get that body through +space by physical strength or management, but seems to go where He will by +choosing to be there. He is no longer affected in His movements by the +walls of a building or other such material obstruction, but comes and goes +at will. The arrangement of the linen cloths in the tomb, as marked so +keenly by Peter and John, is significant. They are found lying as they +were when enfolding that body, as though He had in rising risen up through +them.</p> + +<p>Clearly the body is the same so far as personal identity is concerned. But +the limitations are gone. The control of spirit over body seems full, +without any limitations. As one of us can, <i>in spirit,</i> be in a place far +removed as quick as thought, so He seems to have been able to be +<i>actually</i>, bodily, where He wanted to be as quickly. All the old powers +remain. All the old limitations are gone, never to return. Jesus had moved +over to the life side of death. He had gone down into death's domain, +given it a death blow, and then risen up into a new Eden life, where +neither sin nor death had power to touch. Those forty days were sample +days of the new Eden life on earth.</p> + +<p>Jesus has become the leader of a new sort of life lived on the earth, +mingling in its activities, but free of its power, <i>controlled from +above</i>. He asks every one who will to come along after Him. We can, for He +has. It is possible, because of Him. We may, for He asks us to. It is our +privilege. Let us go.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch14"> +<h3>The Ascension: Back Home Again Until----</h3> + + + +<h4>Tarry Ye--Go Ye.</h4> + + +<p>One day the disciples and followers of Jesus had met in Jerusalem, when +Jesus Himself came again in their midst and talked with them quite a bit. +He said particularly that they were not to leave Jerusalem, but wait +there. In a few days the Holy Spirit would come upon them, and they were +to wait until He came. Then He asked them to go with Him for a walk. And +they walk together along those old Jerusalem streets, out the gate and off +past Gethsemane toward the top of Olives over against Bethany. On the way +they ask Him if it was His plan to set up the kingdom then. He turns their +thought away from Palestine toward the world, away from times and seasons +toward telling a race about Himself.</p> + +<p>And now they are standing together on the Mount of Olives. There is Peter, +the new man of rock, and John and James, the sons of thunder, and little +Scotch Andrew, and the man in whom is no guile, and the others. But one's +eyes quickly go by these to the Man in the center of the group. These men +stand gazing on that face, listening for His words. There is a +consciousness that the goodbye word is about to be spoken. Yonder they can +see the bit of a depression and the tops of some old trees. That is +Gethsemane. And over beyond that is the city wall and the little knoll +near by outside. That is Calvary. With memories such as these suggest they +listen with eyes as well as ears. "Ye shall receive power," the Master is +saying, "and ye shall be <i>My witnesses</i> here in Jerusalem and in all +Judea, your brothers, and in Samaria, the nearby people you don't like, +and unto the uttermost part of the earth, everybody else." They are held +by the words and by that face. Then He lifts up His hands in blessing upon +them. And as they gaze they notice He is rising, His feet are off the +earth, then higher and higher. Then a shining glory cloud sweeps down out +of the blue, and now they see Him no more.</p> + + + +<h4>Coming Again.</h4> + + +<p>They continue gazing, held spellbound by the sight, thinking maybe they +may get another look. Then two men in white apparel are in their midst and +speak to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the +heavens? This Jesus who was received up into heaven shall so come in like +manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven." That word at once sends them +back to the waiting-place of which the Master had spoken. From that time +they never lost the upward glance, but they were ever absorbed in obeying +the Master's command.</p> + +<p>Jesus' ascension was a continuation of the resurrection movement. The +resurrection was the beginning of the ascension. Having finished the task +involved in dying, Jesus responded to the natural upward movement of His +life. On His way up from the tomb to His Father's home and throne, He +tarried awhile on the earth for the sake of these disciples and leaders, +then yielded again to the upward movement. The two men in white apparel +give the key to the ascension. Jesus will remain above until the next +great step in the kingdom plan. Then He will return to carry out in full +the Father's great love-plan for man and for the earth.</p> + +<p>His last act with these men was conducting them to the Mount of Olives. +That is ever to be the point of outlook for His follower. Yonder in full +view is Gethsemane and Calvary. Following the line of His eyes and +pointing finger, as the last word is spoken, leads us ever to the man +nearest by, to the uttermost parts of the earth, and to all between. +Following His disappearing figure keeps us ever looking upward to Himself +and forward to His return.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="part" id="part4"> +<h2>Study Notes</h2> + + + +<h3>Analysis and References</h3> + + +<p>The spirit-key to an understanding of God's Word is surrender of will and +life to His mastery. "He that is willing to do His will will know of the +teaching." The mental-key to a grasp of the contents of that Book is +<i>habitual broad reading</i>. It cannot be too insistently insisted upon that +wide reading from end to end of the Book, and from end to end of the year, +is <i>the</i> simple essential to a clear understanding and a firm grasp of the +Bible. It is the only possible salvation from the piece-meal, microscopic +study of sentences and verses that has been in common use <i>clear out of +all proportion</i>. Such disproportionate study steals away very largely the +historical setting, and the simple meaning in the mind of speaker and +writer. Wide reading habitually indulged in should come first, and out of +that will naturally grow the closer study. This is the true order. In +giving references it is needful to mark particular verses. Yet this is to +be regretted because of our inveterate habit of reading only the marked +verses instead of getting the sweep of their connection. The connection is +a very large part of the interpretation of any passage. The references +here are meant to be indices to the whole passage in connection. They are +not meant to be full, but simply to start one going. They should be +supplemented by others suggested by one's own reading, by marginal +references (those of the American Revision are specially well selected), +and by concordance and topical text-book. What a student digs out for +himself is in a peculiar sense his own. It is woven into his fibre. It +helps make him the man he comes to be. Those who may want a course to +follow rigidly without independent study will find these notes +disappointing. For those who want a daily scheme of study the allotment +for the day can be by certain designated pages of reading with the +corresponding paragraphs in the Study Notes. The paragraphing will be +found to be in some measure, though not wholly, a sub-analysis. The +American Revision is used here.</p> + + + + +<h3>I. The Purpose of Jesus.</h3> + + + +<h4>1. The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.</h4> + + +<p><i>God Spelling Himself out in Jesus</i>: change in the original +language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old +forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words.</p> + +<p><i>Jesus is God following us up</i>: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad +choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up.</p> + +<p><i>The Early Eden Picture</i>, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen +man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, +eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his +own will--summary--God's thought for man.</p> + +<p><i>Man's Bad Break</i>, Genesis 3. the climax of opportunity--the tree of +choice--the temptation--blended lies--the tempter's strategy--the choice +made--the immediate result--safety in shame--the danger of staying in +Eden--guarding man's home--the return, Rev. 2:7. 22:14, 2. John 10:10.</p> + +<p><i>Outside the Eden Gate</i>: a costly meal--result in the man himself--ears +and eyes affected--looking without seeing--a personal test--Isaiah's +famous passage, Isaiah 6:9-10, see Isaiah 42:18, 20, 23. 43:8. 29:10. +Jeremiah 5:21. 6:10. 7:26. Ezekiel 12:2. Psalm 69:23. Micah 3:6. Acts +7:51.--Jesus' use of parables--Jesus' irony--Matthew 13:10-15. Mark +4:10-12. Luke 8:9-10. See John 12:40. Acts 28:26, 27. Romans 11:8. John +9:39-41--tongue affected--the tongue man's index--effect of seeing +God--whole mental process affected--sense of dread--- Paul's seven steps +down in mental process, Ephesians 4:17-19--Jesus the music of God, the +face of God.</p> + +<p><i>Sin's Brood</i>: result in the growth of sin--three stages, flood, Moses, +Paul--Paul's Summary, Romans I:18-32, see Matthew 15:19. Galatians +5:19-21. 2 Timothy 3:2-5.--Paul's Outlook--a summary of to-day--the +conventional cloak--four great paragraphs--man still a king, Genesis 9:6. +1 Corinthians 11:7. James 3:9.--a composite picture--analysis of sin--the +root of sin.</p> + +<p><i>God's Treatment of Sin</i>: "gave them up," Romans 1:24, 26, 28. see Job +8:4. 1 Kings 14:16. Psalms 81:12. Acts 7:42, Romans 9:22 (endured).--the +worst thing and the best--sin's gait--Jesus is God letting sin do its +worst upon Himself.</p> + +<p><i>A Bright Gleam of Light</i>: the non-Christian world--God has no +favorites--all know God directly, Romans 1:20, 32. John 1:9--believing on +Jesus--the outside majority--Peter's statement, Acts 10:34, 35.--Paul's +statement, Romans 2:7.--persistent climbers--trusting the unknown +Jesus--the Master's command--to help our brothers--Jesus is God +sacrificing His best.</p> + +<p><i>The Broken Tryst</i>, Genesis 3:8-9: God keeping tryst--man not there--God's +search--a lonely God--still calling--Jesus is God calling man back to the +broken tryst.</p> + +<p><i>God's Wooing</i>: direct revelation to all--the inner light, John 1:9. Acts +17:26-28. Job 12:10. Psalms 139:1-16.--through nature, Psalms 19:1-6.--in +the daily weave of life, Acts 17:28.--"The Lord's at the loom"--a special +revelation, Romans 3:2. Deuteronomy 4:8.--in Jesus, Heb. 1:1-3.--the +Book--the mission of the Book, John 20:31.--summary--chiefly Jesus.</p> + + + +<h4>2. The Plan for the Coming of Jesus.</h4> + + +<p><i>God's Darling</i>, Psalms 8:5-8.--the plan for the new man--the Hebrew +picture by itself--difference between God's plan and actual events--one +purpose through breaking plans--the original plan--a starting +point--getting inside.</p> + +<p><i>Fastening a Tether inside</i>: the longest way around--the pedigree--the +start.</p> + +<p><i>First Touches on the Canvas</i>: the first touch, Genesis 3:15.--three +groups of prediction--first group: to Abraham, Genesis 12:1-3; to Isaac, +Genesis 26:1-5; to Jacob, Genesis 28:10-15; through Jacob, Genesis +49:9-11. through Balaam, Numbers 24:17-19; through Moses, Deuteronomy +18:15-19, see Matthew 21:11. John 1:21. 6:14. Acts 3:22. 7:37.--second +group: David, 2 Samuel 7:16, 18, 19. 23:3-5. Psalms 2nd, 110th. Solomon in +72nd Psalm. Forty-fifth Psalm.</p> + +<p><i>A Full Length Picture in Colors</i>: third group in prophetic books--one +continuous subject--"day of the Lord," 134 times,--Somebody coming--His +Person; <i>divine</i>, Isaiah 7:14. 9:6. 33:22. Micah 4:7. 5:2. Haggai 2:9. +<i>human</i>, Isaiah 32:2. Daniel 7:13. <i>manner of birth</i>, Isaiah 7:14. <i>of +native stock</i>, Isaiah 9:6. Ezekiel 29:21. <i>of David's line</i>, Isaiah 9:7. +11:1. 16:5. Jeremiah 23:5. 33:15, 17, 21, 26. Amos 9:11. Zechariah 3:8. +6:12. <i>a branch of Jehovah, </i> Isaiah 4:2. <i>a King</i>, Isaiah 9:6. 32:1. +33:17. Jeremiah 23:5. Zechariah 6:13. 9:9. <i>called David</i>, Jeremiah 30:9. +Ezekiel 37:24, 25. Hosea 3:5. <i>a priest-king,</i> Zechariah 6:13. <i>a +preacher</i>, Isaiah 61:1-3. <i>a teacher</i>, Isaiah 9:6 (counsellor).--the +kingdom, Daniel 2:34,44. Obadiah:21 (Jehovah's).--the capital, Isaiah 2:3. +4:5. 33:20,21. 59:20. 65:18, 19. Joel 3:16, 17, 20, 21. Micah 4:7, 8.--the +presence of God, Ezekiel 37:27. Joel 3:21. Zechariah 2:10, 11. Zephaniah +3:17.--visibly present, Isaiah 4:5, 6.--characteristics, vengeance, Isaiah +61:2. 63:1-6. Zephaniah 3:19.--great victory, Zechariah 9:9.--- but +without force, Isaiah 11:4. Zechariah 9:10.--peace, Isaiah 2:4. 9:6, +7.--established in loving kindness, Isaiah 16:5.--justice and right, +Isaiah 9:7. 16:5. 32:1. Jeremiah 23:5. 33:15.--the poor and meek, Isaiah +11:4, 5.--broken-hearted, poor and imprisoned, Isaiah 61:1-3.--protection +from all ills, Isaiah 32:2.--impartiality in judging even the most weak +and obnoxious, Isaiah 42:3, 4.--gradual increase, Isaiah 9:7. 42:4. a +great crisis, Zephaniah 4:1. Habakkuk 3:1-15. with unexpected suddenness, +Malachi 3:1--effect upon Israel <i>nationally</i>; Spirit-baptized, Isaiah +44:2. Ezekiel 37:9-14. 39:29.--never withdrawn, Isaiah 59:21.--judgments +removed, Zephaniah 3:14, 15.--impurity cleansed, Isaiah 4:4. Malachi 3:2, +3.--possession of land, Zephaniah 2:7.--capital holy, Joel 3:17.--weakness +gone, Micah 4:6, 7. freedom from enemies, Isaiah 33:18, 19.--Jeremiah +30:8-10. Joel 3:17. Zechariah 14:11. Micah 5:6.--at peace, Isaiah 33:20. +Micah 5:5.--leadership, Isaiah 2:2. Micah 4:1, 3. 5:8.--spiritual +leadership, Joel 2:28, 29.--supremacy, etc., Isaiah 60:1-22. 11:10. 2:2. +Micah 4:1, 3. 5:8. Zechariah 2:10.--Jerusalem center, Isaiah 60:10-14. +Zechariah 14:16. effect upon Israel <i>personally</i>; made over new, Ezekiel +11:17-20. 36:25-27. Jeremiah 31:31-34. Isaiah 4:3.--devotion and +open-mindedness, Isaiah 32:3-4. 44:5.--sickness absent, Isaiah +33:24.--longer lives, Isaiah 65:20.--increase in numbers, Jeremiah 33:22. +Ezekiel 37:26. Isaiah 44:4.--no disappointed plans, Isaiah 65:21-23. Amos +9:14.--fear gone, Micah 4:4.--thrilled hearts, Isaiah 60:5. effect upon +<i>other nations</i>; to come back to God, Micah 5:3 (see John 10:16).--Spirit +upon all, Joel 2:28.--voluntary coming to Israel for instruction, Isaiah +2:3. Micah 4:2.--earth filled with knowledge, Isaiah 11:9.--her influence +as the dew, Micah 5:7.--the only medium, Isaiah 60:12. wondrous blessings +shared with all, Isaiah 42:1, 6, 7. 49:6. 51:4. 61:1.--universal peace, +Micah 4:3-4. Zechariah 9:10. changes in nature; at Jerusalem, Isaiah +33:21. Joel 3:18 l.c. Zechariah 14:8. Ezekiel 47:1-5. Zechariah +14:4.--increased light, Isaiah 30:26.--overshadowed by presence of God, +Isaiah 60:19 (Presence cloud, Exodus; as sun, Matthew 17:2 with parallels; +above sun Acts 26:13).--renewed fertility, Ezekiel 36:29, 30. Hosea 2:21. +Joel 3:18. Amos 9:13. Zechariah 14:10. Isaiah 4:2.--removal of curse upon +earth, Zechariah 14:11. Isaiah 65:17.--the animal creation, Isaiah 11:6-9. +65:25. Hosea 2:18 (see Romans 8:20-22).--without limit, Isaiah 2:2. 9:7. +Daniel 2:44. 7:14. Micah 4:1. 5:4. Zephaniah 3:20. Zechariah 9:10. Joel +3:20.--a return to original conditions--characteristics of the coming +One--mental equipment, Isaiah 11:2. 42:1. 61:1.--personal beauty and +dignity, Isaiah 4:2. 33:17. Daniel 7:14. Micah 5:14.--unpretentious, +Zechariah 9:9.--direct touch with God, Isaiah 49:1-3. 50:4.--backed by +power of God, etc., Isaiah 42:1, 6. 49:3. 52:13. 53:11. 59:20. Zechariah +3:8. Malachi 3:1.--the poor cared for righteously, Isaiah 11:3-5.--divine +insight, Isaiah 11:3.</p> + +<p><i>Back to Eden</i>: a wild dream--the Hebrew Book's conception--Simeon and +Anna, Luke 2:25-38.</p> + +<p><i>Strange Dark Shadowings</i>: weird forebodings--acted out, Joseph and +David--Psalms 22. 69:20, 21. Isaiah 50:6, 7. 52:13-53:12. Daniel 9:24-26. +Zechariah 11:4-14. 12:10. 13:7. a valley-road to the throne.</p> + + + +<h4>3. The Tragic Break in the Plan.</h4> + + +<p><i>The Jerusalem Climate</i>: the contrasting receptions, Luke 2. the music of +heaven, Job 38:6, 7. Luke 2:13, 14. pick out the choruses of Revelation, +the crowning book.--the after-captivity leaders, see Ezra and +Nehemiah--ideals and ideas--present leaders--Herod--the high priest--the +faithful few, Luke 2:25, 38. 23:51.</p> + +<p><i>The Bethlehem Fog</i>: Matthew 1 and 2. Luke 2. a foggy shadow--suspicion of +Mary--a stable cradle--murder of babes--star-students--senate meeting--a +troubled city-flight--Galilee.</p> + +<p><i>The Man Sent Ahead</i>: the growing boy--John's relation to Jesus--trace +passages in gospels referring to John.</p> + +<p><i>The Contemptuous Rejection</i>: accepted by individuals, rejected by +nation--John's drawing power--a dramatic presentation. John +1:19-34.--ominous silence--five satisfied seekers, John +1:35-51.--cleansing of temple, John 2:13-22.--first public work, John +2:23-25.--Nicodemus, John 3:1-21.--helping John, John 3:22, 23. 4:1 with +Matthew 3:5-7. Luke 3:7-14. the dispute about the two men, John 3:25-30 +(note American Revision)--John's arrest--effect upon Jesus, Matthew +4:12-25.--"withdrew."</p> + +<p><i>The Aggressive Rejection</i>: the second stage--Nazareth, Luke +4:16-30.--seven incidents, <i>i.e.</i> (i) healing at pool of Bethesda, John +5:1-47. (2) forgiving and healing palsied man, Matthew 9:2-8 with +parallels. (3) criticizing Jesus' personal conduct, Matthew 9:10-17 with +parallels. (4) grain fields on the Sabbath, Matthew 12:1-8 with parallels. +(5) healing whithered hand, Matthew 12:9-14 with parallels.--second +"withdrew," Mark 3:7-12 with parallels. (6) charge of having an unclean +spirit, Mark 3:20-30 with parallels. (7) interruption by his mother, +Matthew 12:46-50 with parallels.--the murder of John, Matthew 14:1-12 with +parallels.--third "withdrew," Matthew 14:13 with parallels.--staying in +Galilee during fourth Passover, John 6:4, 5.</p> + +<p><i>The Murderous Rejection</i>: a fugitive from Judea, John 7:1.--fresh attack +by southern leaders, Matthew 15:1-20 with parallel in Mark.--fourth +"withdrew"--outside national lines, Matthew, 15:21 with parallel in +Mark.--return to Sea of Galilee and request for sign, Matthew 15:29-16:4 +with parallel in Mark.--Feast of Tabernacles, John 7: 2-8:59.--the blind +man cured, John 9:1-40.--Transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-8 with +parallels.--the beginning of the last journey, Luke 9:51. Mark 10:1, 32. +Matthew 19:1.--the Seventy, Luke 10:1-17.--getting nearer to Jerusalem, +divorce question, Mark 10:2-12. Matthew 19:3-12.--Good Samaritan, Luke +10:25-37. Beelzebub, "vehemently," Luke 11. fresh tilt over Sabbath +question, Luke 13:10-17.--cunning attempt to get Him into Judea, Luke +13:31.--Feast of Dedication, John 10:22-40.--Lazarus, John 11:1-46. formal +decision against Him, John 11:47-53. a fugitive, John 11:57. no more +openly, John 11:54. crowding pilgrims, John 11:55, 56. Lazarus again, John +12:9-11. the last week; triumphal entry, Matthew 21:1-17 with parallels, +daily visits and return to Olivet, Luke 21:37-38; cleansing temple, +Matthew 21:12-17 with parallels; duel of questionings, Matthew 22. Mark +11:27-12:34. Luke 20:1-44; His terrific arraignment, Matthew 23:1-39 with +parallels; Greeks, John 12:20-36. Bethany feast, Matthew 26:6-13 with +parallels, Judas, Matthew 26:14-16 with parallels; with the inner circle, +Matthew 26:17-46 with parallels.</p> + +<p><i>Suffering the Birih-pains of a New Life</i>: why did Jesus die?--God's plan +of atonement, Leviticus 1:3-9--Paul's statement in effect, Galatians +2:20.--Jesus' dying does not fit into Hebrew ritual--standpoint of +Hebrews--what God counselled, Acts 2:23.--this affects only the form not +the virtue of Jesus' death--preaching of Acts, 2:14-36, 38, 39. 3:12-26. +4:8-12. 5:29-32, and on, first church council, Acts 15.13-18 with Amos +9:11-12.--the superlative of hate--Jesus' death voluntary, John 10:17, +18--ten attempts before the cross; three to kill at once, Luke 4:30. John +8:59. 10:31. other attempts, Matthew 12:14. John 5:18. 7:1, 30, 32. 10:39. +11:53 Jesus' own explanation:--the temple, John 2:19. lifted up, 3:15. +Matthew 9:15 with parallels. His flesh, John 6:53-57. with Jesus' own +interpretation, good Shepherd, John 10:11; for the sheep, 10:15; other +sheep, 10:16; take it again, 10:17; of Myself, 10:18. cross, Matthew 10:38 +with parallels. Jonah, Matthew 12:39, 40. 16:4 with parallel in Luke. +Greeks, John 12:24-33. the Father's command, John 14:31. for friends, John +15:13. sanctified, John 17:19. the Father's cup, John 18:11. John's +comment, John 12:47-52.--the necessity for dying--a step in a wider +plan--for the nation--wholly voluntary--six elements in a perfect +sacrifice--Jesus alone is a perfect sacrifice--Paul's comment, Romans +3:26.--God's master-stroke--faith--Hebrew heathen and Christian grouped.</p> + + + +<h4>4. Some Surprising Results of the Break.</h4> + + +<p><i>The Surprised Jew</i>: a clash of wills--thousands of believing Jews--the +church displacing kingdom--two-fold division of men formerly--now +three-fold--church different in organization from kingdom--the Baptist +puzzled--Jesus did not fill out Hebrew prophecy--two characteristics, +personal and official--personal details fulfilled--official not because of +rejection--out of situation grew four gospels--Mark--Matthew's the gap +gospel--Paul's audiences--Luke's gospel--these three tell of rejection +mainly--John's gospel--the order of the gospels in canon.</p> + +<p><i>The Surprised Church</i>: God holds to His plan--mixed ideas of kingdom and +church--a handy principle of interpretation--one law consistently +applied--the church to fulfil its mission and go--the kingdom simply +retarded, yet to come--the plan enriched--sliding scale of fulfilment--the +King must come--- even this in Hebrew picture, Zechariah 12:10. New +Testament teaching. Peter, Acts 3:21.--keeping truth in proportion--the +gospel of the kingdom--Paul, 1 Thessalonians 1.10. 2:19. 3:13. 4:13-18. +5:10-23. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. 2:1-9. 1 Corinthians 1:7, 8. 3:13. 5:5. +15:23, 25, 51, 52. 16:22. 2 Corinthians 1:14. 5:2-4. Romans 8:18, 19, 23. +11:12-29. 13:11, 12. 16:20. Colossians 3:4. Ephesians 1:10, 14, 18. 4:4, +30. 5:27. Philippians 1:6, 10. 2:16. 3:20. 4:5. 1 Timothy 1:1 (note Paul's +use of "hope" throughout). 6:14. Titus 2:13. 2 Timothy 1:12, 18. 2:12. +4:1, 8.--The Book of Revelation--the coming surprise. <i>The Surprising +Jew</i>: greatest surprise--for all--the puzzle of history--divinely +preserved--the keystone of the coming kingdom--Jesus the spirit magnet for +Jew and all.</p> + + + + +<h3>II. The Person of Jesus.</h3> + + + +<h4>1. The Human Jesus.</h4> + + +<p><i>God's meaning of "Human":</i> man's fellow--two meanings of word +human--original meaning--natural limitations.</p> + +<p><i>The Hurt of sin</i>: sin's added limitations.</p> + +<p><i>Our Fellow</i>: Jesus truly human--up to first standard--His +insistence--perfect in His humanness--fellowship in sin's +limitations--hungry, Matthew 16:5. John 4:6-8.--tired, John 4:6. Mark +4:38.--poverty, Matthew 13:55. Mark 6:3.--hard toil, John +19:25-27.--homeless, Luke 4:16-30. Matthew 8:20. Luke 9:58.--discipline of +waiting.</p> + +<p><i>There's More of God since Jesus Went Back</i>: the Nazareth home--fellowship +with His brothers--"In the shop of Nazareth"--a Man on the throne.</p> + + + +<h4>2. The Divine Jesus.</h4> + + +<p><i>Jehovah-Jesus:</i> John 1:1-18. the intimacy of John, John 13:23. 19:26. +20:2. 21:7, 20. "with Jesus," John 18:15.--John writes of Jesus--- when he +wrote--getting the range--his literary style--the beginning--the +Word--this was Jesus--the tragic tone.</p> + +<p><i>God's Spokesman</i>: the Creator was Jehovah--- Jehovah is Jesus--the +Spokesman--Old Testament revelations, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, +Jacob, Moses, the elders of Israel, Isaiah, Ezekiel,--Whom these +saw--various ways of speaking--John's Gospel a battlefield--finding the +Man. <i>Whom Moses Saw</i>: Jesus' own standpoint--"down from heaven," John +3:13, 31. 6:38. 8:42. would go back again, John 6:62. John 16:5, 10. 13:1. +come on an errand, then going back, John 16:28 13:3. He only had seen the +Father, John 6:46. only begotten Son, John 3:16, 18. His own Father, John +5:17, 18. 10:32-33. 19:7.--Jesus' answer to Jews' objection, John +5:19-47.--"He wrote of Me," the true meaning--I and the Father one, John +10:30.--the Father in Me, John 10:38. the name Father in Old Testament, 2 +Samuel 7:14. 1 Chronicles 17:13. 22:10. Psalm 68:5. 89:26. 103:13. Isaiah +63:16. 64:8. Jeremiah 3:4, 19. Malachi 3:17.--Jehovah the common +name--trace Jesus' use of Father about 180 times--manna, John 6:32.</p> + +<p><i>Jesus is God Wooing Man</i>: "Abraham--saw and was glad," John +8:33-59--supposed meanings--natural meaning--"I am"--Jesus is Jehovah come +Himself to woo man.</p> + + + +<h4>3. The Winsome Jesus.</h4> + + +<p><i>The Face of Jesus</i>: Jesus drew crowds, men, women, children, bad people, +enemies--His personality--face--impress of experiences--the glory of God +in that face, 2 Corinthians 4:6. Hebrews 1:3.</p> + +<p><i>The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus</i>: the eye--Jesus' eyes, Luke +4:16-30. John 8:59. 10:31. 7:32, 45, 46. 18:6. Mark 10:32. 9:36. 10:13-16. +Luke 19:48.--His voice, Matthew 26:30. personal touch, Matthew 8:3, 15. +9:29. 17:7. 20:34. Mark 1:41. 7:33. Luke 5:13. 22:51. (John 14:16-20). His +presence irresistible. Moses' request, Exodus 33:18. Jesus draws +men--yielding to His power.</p> + + + + +<h3>III. The Great Experiences of Jesus' Life.</h3> + + + +<h4>1. The Jordan: The Decisive Start.<br /> Matthew 3:13-17. Mark 1:9-11. Luke +3:21-22.</h4> + + +<p><i>The Anvil of Experience</i>: knowledge only through experience--the Fourth, +Daniel 3:25.--three Hebrews, Daniel 3.--Babylonian premier, Daniel +6:16-23.--George Mueller--Jesus made perfect through experience, Hebrews +2:10. 5:8, 9. 7:28, l.c.--all our experiences, Hebrews 2:14-18. +Philippians 2:7. Hebrews 4:15, except through sin, Hebrews 4:15, l.c. +7:26. 2 Corinthians 5:21, f.c. 1 Peter 2:22. 1 John 3:5, l.c.--Jesus' +suffering, Philippians 2:6-8. Hebrews 2:9, 17, 18. 4:15. His obedience, +Luke 2:51. Matthew 26:39. John 10:18. 14:31. Philippians 2:8. Romans 5:19. +Hebrews 5:8. knowledge through experience--common experiences--mountain +peaks--the tragic in each.</p> + +<p><i>Our Brother</i>: Jesus coming for baptism--John's objection--why +baptized--getting in touch--the point of contact--choosing for Himself the +Father's choice--the dangers--His strong purpose--the Father's +approval--three times the voice, here, transfiguration, Matthew 17:5. Mark +9:7. Luke 9:35. Greeks, John 12:28. the decisive start.</p> + + + +<h4>2. The Wilderness: Temptation.<br /> Matthew 4:1-11. Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13.</h4> + + +<p><i>The University of Arabia</i>: Jesus' naturalness--the Spirit's +presence--intensity, Luke 2:45-51.--a true perspective--- the temptation's +path--sin's path--John's grouping, 1 John 2:16.--the Spirit's +plan--why--the devil's weakness--the Spirit's leading--a wilderness for +every God-used man, Moses, Elijah, Paul.</p> + +<p><i>Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar</i>: Jesus the only one led up to be +tempted--the wilderness--its history, Genesis 13:10-13. +18:16-19:38.--Jesus really tempted--no wrong here in inner response--every +temptation--by the devil.</p> + +<p><i>Waiting the Father's Word</i>: the tempter's skill--acting divinely--a stone +for hunger--not wrong in itself--recognizing temptation--"man"--waiting +the Father's word--the trained inner ear--not our power but God's through +our obedience.</p> + +<p><i>Love never tests</i>: a more agreeable setting--touching tender chords--the +religious temptation--only through consent--bad scripture quoting, Psalm +91--a helpful dust-cloth--using power only to help--a true quotation, +Deuteronomy 6:16.</p> + +<p><i>The Devil acknowledges the King</i>: a dazzling scene--analyzing the +tempter's proposition--a common cunning trap--Jesus' kingly conduct--the +devil obeys Him--but to return--a coward--our safety in Jesus--lead us not +into temptation.</p> + + + +<h4>3. The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure.<br /> Matthew 16:28-17:1-8. Mark +9:1-8. Luke 9:27-36.</h4> + + +<p><i>God in Sore Straits</i>: the darkest hour save one, fugitive, John 7:1. ban, +John 9:22, 34. pushing, Matthew 15:1. Mark 7:1.--the danger zone, +"withdrew," Matthew 4:12. 12:15. 14:13. 15:21. Tabernacles, John 7:32. +8:59.--Galileans desert, John 6:60-66.--the inner circle infected, John +6:67-71.--God needs men.</p> + +<p><i>Fire and anvil for Leaders</i>: mental strength--seasoned leadership--Simon +and Peter.</p> + +<p><i>An Irresistible Plan</i>: alone with the twelve--the changed plan, Matthew +16:18-21.--Peter's stupid boldness, Matthew 16:22, with Mark 8:32.--the +best available stuff--to see the Jesus within--getting Paul, Acts 9:1-9. +22:6-11. 26:12-18.</p> + +<p><i>The Glory of that Light</i>: while praying--changed from within--absorbed +with Jesus' master-stroke--the jarring human note--the glory +obscured--through an opened door--the kingdom.</p> + +<p><i>A Vision of Jesus</i>: gleams of light--the purpose secured, John 20:19, 24, +26-29.--an indelible impress, John 1:14. 12:41. Mark 9:3 with 1 Peter +1:16-17. Acts 12:2.--changed while looking, Acts 22:11. 2 Corinthians +3:18.</p> + + + +<h4>4. Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle.<br /> Matthew 26:36-46. Mark +14:32-42. Luke 22:39-46. Hebrews 5:7.</h4> + + +<p><i>The Pathway in</i>: messengers ahead--Jesus <i>felt</i> the cross drawing +near--the look of His face, Luke 9:51-55.--His disciples afraid, Mark +10:32.--indignation against sin, John 11:33, 38. marginal reading American +Revision.--the Greeks, John 12:20-28.</p> + +<p><i>The Climax of Suffering</i>: the darkest shadow--why the struggle is +strange--shock of extremes--His purpose in yielding--separation from the +Father--Matthew 27:46. Mark 15:34 margin.--the superlative degree of +suffering.</p> + +<p><i>Alone</i>: a full evening, Matthew 26:17-19 with parallels. John, chapters +13 to 17.--for prayer--on knees and face--the changed prayer--ready for +the worst.</p> + + + +<h4>5. Calvary: Victory.<br /> Matthew 26:47-27:61. Mark 14: 43-15:47. Luke +22:47-23:56. John 18:1-19:42.</h4> + + +<p><i>Yielding to Arrest</i>: the betrayal--protecting the disciples--checking +Peter's violence--the arrest--the disciples forsake Him--except two, John +18:15, 16.</p> + +<p><i>The Real Jewish Ruler</i>: Annas the intriguer--an unrebuked insult--the +case settled at once--before Caiaphas--difficulty in fixing a charge--the +dramatic question and solemn answer--second condemnation--gross insults.</p> + +<p><i>Held Steady by Great Love</i>: Peter gains entrance through John, John +18:16.--the stammering denial--the bolder--with oaths and curses--Jesus' +look--Peter's tears.</p> + +<p><i>An Obstinate Roman</i>: before the senate--trying to make a case--the formal +condemnation--before Pilate--an unexpected set-back--alone with +Pilate--acquitted--shrill protests--off to Herod.</p> + +<p><i>A Savage Duel</i>: before Herod--no word for him--more insults--a second +acquittal--back to Pilate--his character--his summing up--their +protests--his wife's message--Barabbas or Jesus--Pilate weakening--the +scourging and coarse mocking--Pilate's surprise--a new charge--the +governor startled--alone again with Pilate--the use of Caesar's +name--renunciation of national hopes--the defeated governor's small +revenge--the duel over.</p> + +<p><i>Victory</i>: out to Calvary--the pitying women--crucified--praying for the +soldiers--pitching dice for His clothes--the inscription--coarse taunts +and jests--winning a man at the very last--providing for His mother the +darkness--the agonizing cry--the shout of victory.</p> + + + +<h4>6. The Resurrection: Gravity Upward.<br /> Matthew 28:1-15. Mark 16:1-8. Luke +24:1-49. John 20:1-21:25. 1 Corinthians 15:4-7.</h4> + + +<p><i>A New Morning</i>: early visit to the tomb--Mary Magdalene's alarmed call +for Peter--the message of the angels--Peter and John come--another group +of women get an angelic message.</p> + +<p><i>Jesus seeking out Peter</i>: Mary Magdalene meets Jesus--He meets other +women--the soldiers' story--alone with Peter.</p> + +<p><i>Made Known in the Breaking of Bread</i>: the Emmaus travellers--the +Stranger's explanation--the evening meal--the Master!</p> + +<p><i>Even so Send I you</i>: the meeting in Jerusalem--the Master's unexpected +presence--the sure proofs--breathing on them--Thomas' stubborn doubts--a +week later--a second great catch of fish--to James--to five hundred--on +Olives' top--the Bethany home not represented.</p> + +<p><i>Gravity Upward</i>: the resurrection not expected--fully assured--the new +victory-day--Jesus was raised--He rose at will--His dying voluntary, so +the rising--man's true gravity--sin's gravity--Jesus' gravity upward.</p> + +<p><i>The Life Side of Death</i>: bodily changes in Jesus--personal identity +unchanged--limitations gone--the Leader of a new sort of life.</p> + + + +<h4>7. The Ascension: Back Home Again Until----</h4> + + +<p><i>Tarry ye--Go ye</i>: the Jerusalem meeting--the walk to Olives--not +Palestine only, but a world--the last word--upward--seen no more.</p> + +<p><i>Coming again</i>: gazing upward, Acts 1:10, 11.--a continuation upward--the +Olivet outlook.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p id="fn1">1. Genesis 2: 25.</p> + +<p id="fn2">2. Schiller.</p> + +<p id="fn3">3. "An Indian Priestess." Published by Hodder & Stoughton.</p> + +<p id="fn4">4. Mary A. Lathbury.</p> + +<p id="fn5">5. Nathaniel Parker Willis.</p> + +<p id="fn6">6. Arthur Peirce Vaughn.</p> + +<p id="fn7">7. So the best manuscripts.</p> + +<p id="fn8">8. Frances Ridley Havergal.</p> + + + +<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> + + +<p id="fnA">A. Original text read "disguest".</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks about Jesus, by S. D. 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