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diff --git a/41500-0.txt b/41500-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd7d54c --- /dev/null +++ b/41500-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1880 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41500 *** + +A LAYMAN'S LIFE OF JESUS + +[Illustration: logo] + + + + + A LAYMAN'S LIFE + OF JESUS + + BY + MAJOR S. H. M. BYERS + OF GENERAL SHERMAN'S STAFF + + Author of "With Fire and Sword," "Sherman's + March to the Sea," "Iowa in War Times," + "Twenty Years in Europe," and + of other books + +[Illustration: Publisher's Mark] + + NEW YORK + THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY + 1912 + Copyright, 1912, by + THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY + + + + +PREFACE + + +Every book should have a purpose. The object of this little volume is +to try and harmonize, in a sense, and bring nearer to us, the story of +the Master. It is free from the fog of creed, and the simple picture +of the Times and the Man may help to waken new interest, especially +with the young in the greatest tale of the world. + + H. S. M. B. + + Des Moines, Sept. 3, 1912. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I 7 + + Palestine two thousand years ago. The Little + Land of Galilee. An Oriental Village. The + Boy Carpenter. + + CHAPTER II 12 + + A Boy of Babylon. The Founder of Judaism. + Philo, the Philosopher. An out-door Man. The + Poet-Carpenter. Staying in the Desert. The + Silence of History. Where was Jesus in these + silent years? + + CHAPTER III 23 + + Christ still a Jew. Is the Child's escape at + Bethlehem still a secret? Performing wonders. A + strange age. Rome still in the thrall of Heathendom. + Augustus dead. Tiberius the Awful. + Palestine itself half Heathen. A Religious + Enthusiast. Jesus is ceasing to be a Jew. A + church tyranny. Subjects of Cæsar. Human + suffering counted for nothing with the Romans. + The Jews are longing for the New Time when + God might come and rule the world in Pity. + An age of Superstitions and Magic. Laws of + Science unknown. Nobody even knew that the + world was round. + + CHAPTER IV 41 + + The Fairy Prince. His Home is everywhere. + John the Baptist is preaching down by Jericho. + The young Jesus hears of him and goes a hundred + miles on foot to see him. A stranger + steps down to the River to be baptized. Look + quick, it is the Lamb of God! John is put to + death in a palace by the Dead Sea. A + Woman's Revenge. + + CHAPTER V 55 + + An Oriental Wedding, and the first miracle. + Jairus. "Little Maid, Arise." The Light of + the World. The Poet of the Lord. Do we know + what a Miracle is? + + CHAPTER VI 67 + + A wandering Teacher. Lives in a borrowed house + at Capernaum. The Testament Books, fragments + written from memory. The whole Law of + Life boiled down to Seven Words. He visits + Tyre by the Ocean. Walking on the Sea. A + hard saying, and not understood. His friends + begin to leave Him. They demand Wonders, + Miracles. Raffael's great picture. + + CHAPTER VII 82 + + Jesus goes alone and on foot to Jerusalem, to try + and prove Himself. In six months they will kill + Him. The rich Capital no place for Socialism. + "If thou be Christ, tell us, plainly." He is a + fugitive from a city mob. The Raising of + Lazarus. Again the people are following Him. + The great Sanhedrin is alarmed. "This Man + has everybody believing on Him. He will create + a Revolution yet." Jerusalem is in political + danger, anyway; so is the Roman Empire. + Everything seems going to pieces. "This + Man has too many Followers; we must kill + Him." Judas is hired to betray Him. + + CHAPTER VIII 94 + + The last supper. Leonardo's great picture. Betrayal. + With a rope around his neck the Savior of mankind is + dragged before a Roman Judge. The scene at Pilate's + palace. Pilate's wife warns him. The awful murder and + the End. + + + + +A Layman's Life of Jesus + + + + +CHAPTER I + + Palestine two thousand years ago. The Little Land of + Galilee. An Oriental Village. The Boy Carpenter. + + +One of the beauty spots of the world, a couple of thousand years ago, +was the little land of Galilee, in upper Palestine. That was a land +for poets and painters. + +Lonesome, deserted, and little inhabited as it seems now, there was a +time when this little paradise of earth had many people and many +handsome cities. "In my time," says Josephus, "there were not less +than four hundred walled towns in Galilee." Nature, too, was lavish in +its gifts to this little land. There were green valleys there, +picturesque mountains, clear blue lakes, running brooks, and grassy +fields. An Eastern sun shone on the province almost all the time. +There was no winter there. Like a diamond in the very heart of this +beautiful land sat the town of Nazareth, "The Flower of Galilee." +Close by the village were the hills that fenced in the upper end of +the plain of beautiful Esdralon. Figs grew there at Nazareth, and +oranges, and grapes luscious and bountiful as nowhere else. The +flower-lined lanes stretched from the village clear down to the blue +lake of Galilee, only a dozen miles or so away. It must have been a +delight to live in a climate so delicious, in a land so lovely. + +It all belonged to Rome then, as did the whole country known +as Palestine. The Romans had divided the land into three +provinces,--Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, with its splendid city of +Jerusalem, then one of the noted capitals of the world. Governors or +kings were appointed for these three provinces by the emperors at +Rome; they were usually Orientals. + +Just now two sons of Herod the Great, oftener known as "the splendid +Arab," are ruling there. The one named Herod is at Jerusalem; his +brother Antipater, or Herod Antipas, is governing little Galilee in +the north end of Palestine. Like many another Oriental king he is an +idle, luxurious, dissipated, and corrupt ruler. + +There is yet another brother of these two kings. His name is Philip, +and he lives in Rome. He has a very beautiful wife, who some day is to +bring great trouble on the world, for Antipater will yet desert his +Galilean queen and marry this Roman beauty. + +It is all in the time of the great Augustus that we are talking of +now. In Rome it is called the Golden Age. It is not quite that in +Palestine. Yet the world's greatest era is just beginning there. In +how small a territory the world's greatest deeds are about to be +enacted! Palestine, taken all together, did not make much of a country +in area; many of the states in the American union have more square +miles, but all the nations in the world combined have no such history. +Palestine is a strip of territory reaching along the Mediterranean for +one hundred and fifty miles on one side, and along the Arabian desert +on the other. It is hardly over sixty miles across. It is +topographically of the most diversified character. It has some +beautiful valleys and purling streams; it has mountains, too, lofty +and desolate, and its principal lakes are almost a thousand feet below +the level of the sea. The whole land is cut in two lengthwise by the +Jordan river, the most peculiar, the most rapid, and the most historic +river on the face of the earth. + +We are now in Galilee. In the midst of the wonderful beauty of the +scene at Nazareth any one would be attracted by the appearance of a +youth there who is just out of school. This Nazareth, though not His +birthplace, is His home; here all His brothers and sisters and cousins +live. In a village close by His mother Mary was born. The boy's own +birth was at a country inn up near Jerusalem, at a time when His +parents had gone there to pay taxes, and be counted as citizens of the +Roman empire. + +The lovely little village where this youth is, happy among His kith +and kin, is not unlike many an Oriental village of to-day. Strange +little stone-paved streets run into the open square where the +fountain of the village is. And this is the fountain where, on summer +evenings, the village girls, among them the beautiful Mary herself, +came for water. The little square, and the streets, and possibly some +of the old houses, and the ruins of the fountain are there yet, in +this 1912, and clustering vines and roses are still there--and so too +are the clear skies, the starlit nights, the purple hills, and the +dark-eyed women, just as in the long ago. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + A Boy of Babylon. The Founder of Judaism. Philo, the + Philosopher. An out-door Man. The Poet-Carpenter. Staying in + the Desert. The Silence of History. Where was Jesus in these + silent years? + + +Let us go back to that long ago for a little while. At the foot of one +of the little streets, close by the square and the fountain, stands a +simple shop for carpenters. At the door, ax and saw in hand, we see +again that Galilean youth. He is a carpenter's apprentice now, and is +working with Joseph, His father. He is tall and beautiful, His eyes +are blue, and very mild--His hair is yellow. He is wearing the +working-man's costume common to Galileans of His age. He is perhaps +twenty--handsome in countenance, and kindly beyond expression. He has +long since finished with the little village school, where the tasks +consisted only in chanting verses from the Scriptures with the other +boys and girls of the village. But as He was apt, He has learned the +Scriptures well. He knows them by heart almost; and later at the +synagogue He heard the priests read from the Great Hillel, the +Babylonian, who is writing and saying things about life, religion, and +the Scriptures that are shaking the religious world. Philo, also, He +almost knows by heart. He also knows the Psalms of David, the Proverbs +of Solomon, as well as the aphorisms and maxims, the dreams and +stories of great men who were writing in Palestine just before He was +born. It was a day of maxims in literature. Men wrote short, strong, +simple sentences, full of thought. Their sayings were easy to +remember. Indeed, even to-day, there is no book so easy to commit to +memory as the Bible. + +The young carpenter stored them all in a retentive mind. Some day He +would have use for them. At times the youth stops His work and talks +with His father Joseph about the magnificent temple that Herod is just +completing up there at Jerusalem. He has seen it often as a boy, and +He tells of the strange questions the priests there once asked Him, +and how easily He answered every one. He is talking in the peculiar +Arimean dialect, a speech ridiculed in great Jerusalem, as everywhere +else, outside His Galilee. Occasionally, too, He is relating to His +father the beautiful aphorisms from the gentle Hillel. + +And who is this wonderful Hillel of whom Testament writers and +teachers say almost nothing at all? Few of the young ever heard of +him. We must ask, for some have even called him another Jesus, he was +so good and great. He was a very princely Jew, this Hillel, this lover +of mankind, this gentle and humane reformer, whose life benefited the +whole age in which he lived. As a poor Babylonian youth, he went over +to Jerusalem to study under the great rabbis of the church. He soon +became very distinguished, and through him Jewish life and religion +were reformed. He is often called the founder of Judaism as taught in +the Talmud. Herod made him president of the great Sanhedrin, with the +title of prince, and the honor descended in his family. His +aphorisms, his maxims, his wise sayings were known to every Jew in +Palestine, and affected all Jewish life. One of his sayings was: "Do +not unto others what thou wouldst not have done unto thyself. This is +the whole law; the rest go and finish." Another: "Do not believe in +thyself till the day of thy death." Again: "If I do not care for my +soul, who will do it for me?" Still one: "Say not I will repent at +leisure. Leisure may never come." And another: "Whosoever is ambitious +of aggrandizing his name will destroy it." Beyond a doubt, many of the +sayings of this great and gentle teacher were as familiar to the young +carpenter working at His bench in little Nazareth as the Galilean's +own sayings are to the youth of to-day. + +Hillel was thirty years older than Christ, and survived Him ten years. +Many of the heart-sayings of the Master can be traced to Hillel, to +Philo, the Egyptian, or to Moses. Let us not forget that He was +human--divinely so--and that His mind, like that of any other human +being, was susceptible to the teachings, the sayings, the surroundings +that were nearest. He not only absorbed all, He refined all. + +Philo was another of the great philosophers whose works helped to +influence the young Galilean. He, though a Jew, lived all his life in +Egypt. There he wrote maxims worthy of the Master himself. He was +twenty years older than the Galilean. He had studied Plato, and spent +his life in trying to harmonize religious Greek thought with the +thoughts of Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews. + +We will hear little in our Testament writers of these two wise men, +who must have had a tremendous influence on the youth at Nazareth. +Indeed, as already said, the Testament anyway tells us not much of the +life at Galilee, or elsewhere. The larger part of the Testament story +relates to the deeds of the passion week, or the last days of the +Master's life. One-third of the book is taken up with that single +week. It has been guessed that had the details of the Galilean's +whole life been written out fully, it would have made a book eighty +times as big as our Bible. + +The things that the Galileans heard in the village synagogue, the +things that He read in the old Scriptures, all, all that found its way +to the village from Hillel, from Philo, and other men renowned then, +and forgotten now, were reflected in Him. More, He beautified all, +simplified all, glorified all. Most of all, however, His divine +instinct enlarged itself from scenes in nature. The young carpenter +was a poet. No beauty of the fields, the hills, the brooks, the lovely +lake escaped His eye, or failed to feed His soul. He was an outdoor +man. Scarcely one of His miracles later, but would be performed out of +doors. The wedding at Cana was probably on the green lawn of a +peasant's home. The stilling of the tempest, the feeding of the five +thousand, the transfiguration, the numberless wonders and cures in all +the Galilean villages were nearly always performed out of doors. Half +His parables have to do with things out of doors. To Him God was in +everything--the rocks, the trees, the blue sky of Galilee, the very +desolation of the Dead sea inspired Him. How often the Testament tells +of His flying away from crowds to be alone with nature. Is it not +altogether possible, almost certain, that these long absences were in +the wilderness of the desert? His long stay in solitary places, later, +communing with God at first hand, may they not account for so much of +the silence of history as to much of His life? It need not seem +strange to us at all. In the old Jewish days half a lifetime of +contemplation in the solitude of the desert was regarded by every one +a first step to leadership. + +Whoever sought a high religious calling, or sought to be a founder of +a new belief, went through this solitary preparation in the desert. +Even Moses did it, and spent forty years as a shepherd on the plains. +John did it, Jerome did it, Mahomet did it. Why not Jesus? Even great +teachers of modern times locked themselves up in the desert of +cloister cells for years. Savonarola did it--Martin Luther did +it--Assisi did it--so did a thousand other luminaries of the religious +world. + +Certainly most of the Galilean's life is a blank to human history, +otherwise not explained. Why should He not have been absent in some +desert solitude, some wilderness, preparing for immortal deeds, +immortal words? There is absolutely no other explanation for these +silent years. + +How little the youth at this moment is dreaming of all that future as +He works by His father's side, or goes about the village encouraging +and helping by His gentle smile! He is healing by His strong faith and +His pure soul. The poor love Him, not yet knowing who He is. He +himself does not know. We even wonder if He knows how it is that He +helps so many. He is no magician, no doer of wonders just to make a +show. Perhaps He only knows as yet that goodness and kindness and love +and extreme faith can do everything. Anyway He is the loved of every +one. How easy it all is to be loved. One can be just a carpenter, and +yet by love do everything. Of all things He is a helper of the poor, +the unfortunate. Sometimes the very ignorant adopt the notion that +salvation is for the poor only. They, too, misunderstand and +exaggerate. A little later a sect of the overzealous poor build a +church on the theory that the poor only, go to Heaven. They call +themselves "Ebionites," or "The Poor." Of course, these sects in a few +years ended in religious suicide. They had forgotten that the Galilean +could be no respecter of class or persons. + +To-morrow this young carpenter, this village doctor, will again +disappear in the wilderness of the desert; who knows how long? Old +church writings say that He was seven years in the desert of Egypt as +a child. He is used to solitude. Legends tell, too, that He studied +law in these days--by law they meant the books of Moses and the +prophets. Likely enough He took the parchment rolls with Him, and in +the long days there in the desert learned them all by heart. Later He +will tell all the people to go and read the same great Scriptures. + +What His life may have been at such times in the desert we can more +than guess. It was a meditation, an inspiration. It is told of John +the Baptist, whose coming birth like that of Christ was announced by +an angel, that he also spent years as a hermit of the desert, and in +its solitude learned a language and received a revelation not +vouchsafed to ordinary man. What then must the great soul of the +Galilean not have absorbed there alone with the voice of the great +creation speaking to Him all the day--the night there with the "floor +of Heaven inlaid with patines of bright gold, and the music of the +spheres sounding in his ears forever." His was a soul to enjoy and to +be inspired with such a scene. + +Little as the sacred writings tell of Him, silent as history is in the +Galilean days, we have other glimpses of the times, and of what He was +doing, by reading the old books, now called Apocryphal, that were +discarded from our present Testament in the fourth century. Why all +of them were discarded, is hard to imagine; for, though buried in an +ocean of nonsense and legend, there was still at the bottom of them a +grain of pure gold. Besides, for over three centuries these discarded +books were regarded as part of the sacred writings. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + Christ still a Jew. Is the Child's escape at Bethlehem still + a secret? Performing wonders. A strange age. Rome still in + the thrall of Heathendom. Augustus dead. Tiberius the Awful. + Palestine itself half Heathen. A Religious Enthusiast. Jesus + is ceasing to be a Jew. A church tyranny. Subjects of + Caesar. Human suffering counted for nothing with the Romans. + The Jews are longing for the New Time when God might come + and rule the world in Pity. An age of Superstitions and + Magic. Laws of Science unknown. Nobody even knew that the + world was round. + + +But let us go back there to Galilee and stay yet a while with the +village carpenter. The youth is older now. Perhaps He is going back +and forth between Galilee and the solitude of the wilderness. This +so-called "wilderness" is nothing more than the secret hills beyond +the Jordan, or the mysterious edge of the near-by desert coming up to +them like a speechless sea. At this moment He is again in Nazareth, +and the wondering villagers again see Him at His daily toil. He is +still learning by rote the striking maxims and proverbs of the Jewish +masters. He is yet a Jew. Like all Israel He is counting on the +completion of prophecy; a new world is sure to come soon--and with it +a king from Heaven. It will be a glorious thing, that new world, that +great king. The villagers familiarly call Him Jesus--but they know +nothing of the beautiful tradition of His birth--how an angel had +announced it to Mary, and how His name was fixed in Heaven. + +No--Mary had meditated much on the angel's visit and on what the angel +had said to her, but steadily she had kept the great secret in her own +heart. She had not even whispered to the villagers about the shepherds +and the star at Bethlehem, nor the sudden flight of herself and the +child to far-off Egypt. Why, her secrecy is just now hard to guess. Is +it possible that Herod or his successor, who would have slain the +child, is still watching for Him--not knowing even of the return from +Egypt years ago? Even now one indiscreet word from her might cause His +death. We wonder if now, on this day, there in His father's workshop, +the youth dreams that some day He is to be a king, and that of his +kingdom there will be no end? I think not. He is not publicly +preaching now. That, Luke says, will come much later. But what +delightful whisperings go about Galilee concerning Him already. +Possibly these beautiful heart-stories about Himself were as familiar +to the young carpenter then as they now are to every reader of the +sacred book. He may have known of them, thought of them, but He, too, +kept them largely to Himself. It was an age of prophecies, of dreams, +of visions, of fables, and of superstitious tales. Perhaps He was +waiting to see if the angel's words to Mary were to be fulfilled. Two +thousand years have not dimmed the beauty of the wondrous tale told of +Mary and the child. If parts of it were only the longings of a few +persons' imaginations, we may never clearly know, nor is it of the +least importance that we should know. The happenings at the birth of +the world's great ones have little to do with the grandeur of their +lives. + +Yes, the young carpenter, with the tender eyes and the radiant face, +may have known of some of these wonderful sayings about Himself. Mary +must have told Him some of them; and Joseph working at His side must +have told Him how, on His account, the little children had been +murdered at Bethlehem, and how narrow His own escape had been when he +and Mary and the child had hurried away to Egypt. We can imagine the +wonderful incidents told by Joseph of that strange flight into a +foreign country. Our Testament barely mentions it. His birth is almost +the only bit of history the Testament gives us of almost twenty-five +years of the Galilean's life. They went to Egypt to escape the wrath +of the tyrant Herod. Old writings tell us of two, even seven, years in +Egypt, and of child-miracles in that far-away land. Of all this our +accepted Testament tells us nothing. Hearing that the tyrant was long +dead, Joseph and Mary and the child secretly returned to the old home +in Galilee. + +Are they living there in secret yet--and is the new king at Jerusalem +wondering if they are alive--and does he too want the child's blood in +case He was not killed that night at Bethlehem, and does he wonder +what became of the wise men of the east who saw the child, but dared +not go back to tell it? Does he wonder if they are somewhere in hiding +yet? Does he dream that this youth in Galilee is possibly the child +the shepherds told of that wonderful night? Just now we still see Him +standing by the little carpenter shop, ax in hand, possibly thinking +of what His father has told Him of His youth; or of what Mary hinted +to Him of the bright Angel of the Annunciation? Who knows? We only +guess at the secret, for history, sacred and profane, has left it all +a blank. We only know that it was a feeling of the whole Jewish race +that an aspirant to leadership must, first of all, retire to the +desert and live for years in solitude, just as Elias had done. It has +been said that a retreat to the desert was the condition of and the +prelude to high destinies. The Galilean knew all about these men, +from Moses and Elias down to John, who found their inspiration on the +desert, or in secret places. If He was not much in the desert in these +unknown years, where then was He, that no one tells of Him? Was there +indeed nothing for Matthew, nor Mark, nor Luke, nor John, nor +Josephus, nor anybody else to write about Him? Was it all a blank +these long years? If secrecy from Herod, or from his successor +Archelaus, was needed--that would account for everything, even for the +whole world's silence. + +This retreat for meditation would not hinder that at far intervals He +return a little to His home in Galilee, where we see Him now with that +ineffable smile of kindness on His face and tenderness shining in His +eyes. The peasants passing by are uplifted, moved by His tender +compassionate look. They wonder why. They wonder too where He has been +so long, and before they are done wondering He is gone. Sometimes He +disappears so suddenly--it was just as if a spirit had come and gone. +Is He again in His hermit cave now beyond the Jordan? Sometimes when +there at home, as now, He has quietly taught the villagers of truth; +He has blessed the poor; He has healed the sick; He has performed +wonders, and they know not how it is done. Some day He will tell them +all. + +It is a strange age He has been living in. Let us look at it for a +little while. This Palestine boy had been just fourteen years old when +the news came that the great Augustus at Rome was dead, and that the +awful and licentious emperor Tiberius was governing the Roman empire. +Just now the Galilean is twenty-six, and other news comes--that +Tiberius has gone to the heavenly little island of Capri in the +Mediterranean sea, and is there holding a court that shall shock the +world. No wonder the youth begins to think, with all His people, that +God must soon send somebody to put an end to the wickedness of kings. +Antipater, the idle and licentious favorite at Rome, still rules over +little Galilee as governor, or king. The Roman empire is still in the +thrall of perfect heathendom. There are half as many Gentiles as Jews +in Palestine itself. All over the land beautiful monuments are erected +by Rome to the heathen gods. The young Nazarene can walk across the +hills to Sidon by the sea any day and hear the people chanting hymns +to Jupiter and Apollo. As for Himself, He is still a Jew, like most of +His countrymen; only now, like Philo and like Hillel, and like John +and others, He is more than a Jew; He is passing out of the old +doctrines of the Jewish church into the broad daylight of truth. He +will yet help to do away with the Mosaic law. In a private way, yet +unheard of outside of little Galilee, He himself is teaching that God +is a spirit, and must be worshiped in spirit and not in form, and not +in heathen idols, nor in the way they are doing it at Jerusalem. God +had already become tired of the burnt offering of rams and of the +blood of beasts. Isaiah had told them that, long ago. This Galilean +will go on repeating it so long as He shall live. Like the great +Hillel, He would teach common justice to man--love for one +another--charity to all. This was to be the great commandment. + +We are not sure, but in a vague way this young Galilean already feels +the mantle of a prophet falling about Him. He is saying nothing +exactly new to His Galilean neighbors--but He is saying it in a new +and gracious way, and they listen to Him as He converses in the shop, +or on the street. He sees and feels God in the beautiful nature all +about Him there in Galilee, yet more He feels God in himself. + +Man holds in himself tremendous hidden powers. Science is rapidly +unveiling them. They were being unveiled to a degree by the Greeks +even in the time of this young carpenter; but the Jewish people +neither believed in nor heeded a school that gave an explanation of +things marvelous. They were set in their superstition. No book that +described certain fixed laws of nature was, for one moment, to take +the place of Moses and the prophets. Even the Galilean himself is +clinging to these old Bible poems. It is the wrong interpretation of +them, possibly, by Himself sometimes, that is driving Him to a +religious rebellion. + +The great church doctors might not like it, were they to hear it--this +young carpenter with the soft words, and the radiance in His face, +slipping back and forth from Galilee to the desert and from the desert +to Galilee, proselyting the peasants, and telling them that God is not +to be worshiped in the semi-heathen manner in which they are doing it +at Jerusalem. Yet, no matter. What care the great religious doctors at +the Sacred City? Who ever heard of this Galilean carpenter anyway, or +of His reforms? Some day, and soon, they will hear of Him. They have +already heard of John, but they are about to settle the score with +John. His extremeness and his violence of speech have attracted the +attention of the king of Galilee, and soon news will come that John's +head on a platter has paid for the lascivious dancing of a girl at +court. Some old writers say it was the king's own daughter who did the +dancing that night in Antipater's palace by the Dead sea. Anyway, the +voice of him who called in the wilderness, is soon to be stilled +forever. + +No, the carpenter's name has not yet reached outside His Galilee. +Aside from an occasional journey to Jerusalem when He was younger and +His foot tramps to the solitude by the desert, there is little to tell +that He has been outside the little province where He was born. His +life in His home village, aside from His carpenter work, is that of a +religious enthusiast. Some will call Him even a visionary. He has +heard so much of a coming king and an overturning of everything in the +world that He himself almost begins to look for something +extraordinary. Why not? He is yet a Jew, and the teaching of the +rabbis and of the Old Scriptures has been the coming of some kind of a +king--a great Messiah, who, from out little Palestine, shall rule the +world in an age of gold. The age, perhaps, is taking something out of +the Bible that is not in it. Our own age has done that many times. Is +it doing it to-day? Never in this world did imagination reach so high +a pitch as it did among the Jews in that wonderful time. Nothing was +talked of or thought of, but the coming golden age and the new king, +riding in a chariot of the clouds. It was not only a very expectant, +superstitious age, it had been a troubled one. The world had been full +of disorder, conflict. Everywhere had been war and tyranny. +Especially, the whole Jewish race, the especial people of God, had +known too often only of tyranny and sorrow. Even their own church, and +church was the government with them, had drifted into a religious +tyranny--the worst tyranny of all. It was, too, hemmed in by the +awfullest form and ceremony. No one in this twentieth century who is +not familiar with the Jewish Talmud and the earlier writings, can have +the remotest conception of the thousand formalities, ceremonies, +mummeries even, imposed upon the people of the church in the olden +days. Later, ten volumes of the Talmud will be required to explain, to +interpret, establish, and to write down the manner in which the +commonest things of life might be done. The great Sanhedrin, or +Supreme Court and Senate of the Jews at Jerusalem, together with the +scribes and priests about the temple, seemed banded together to make +religion an awful, unbearable burden, and life a farce. + +Though all Palestine was a Roman province the Romans interfered but +little with this religious despotism. The Romans had enough wrongs of +their own to inflict upon the people. The whole race of Jews in their +home government had their own laws, their own Jewish customs, habits, +and religion. The Romans simply made them subjects of Cæsar, and they +rendered unto Cæsar only that which was Cæsar's, as this youth of +Galilee, later, would suggest their doing. + +The empire collected taxes, very heavy ones, from the people, and +occasionally forced them into its armies. The Roman eagles and the +Roman soldiers were familiar sights in every town and village of +Palestine. The Romans usually had enough to do at home to disincline +them from bothering themselves too much with the religion of the +Jews. Wars they had had everywhere. But just now, at the time of the +Master's coming, there was a sort of peace in the world--a truce for +breath, as it were. That is to say, the Roman empire that has its foot +on almost the whole earth is resting a little. Rome's untold horrors, +wars, corruptions, its licentiousness, its inhumanity to man, its +blood and outrages have stopped their course at the eternal city for a +little while. It is almost out of victims. Violence has ceased, only +because violence has done its work. + +The social conditions at Rome just before Augustus came to the throne +were too terrible to be believed. That some of this outrage and terror +had spread into the provinces of Palestine through governors and petty +kings, appointed by, and tools of Rome, is only too well known. Herod +himself was bloody enough to have served as an example for the worst +the Roman empire, even, could endure. In Palestine, however, the great +Jewish church served somewhat as a little hindering-wall to the +element that had been almost crushing decent humanity out of the +world. + +All the states, like Palestine, bordering on the Mediterranean, says a +distinguished historian, simply looked at one another--partakers of a +common misfortune. They were tranquil, but it was the silence of +despair. Man was not being considered as an individual by the Romans +any more; he was only a "thing." Human suffering in the provinces +counted for nothing, if only Rome had some political gain. If +Palestine, or any other province, had some advantage by the presence +of Roman legions, it was purely incidental, and scarcely intended. At +this very moment Palestine is groaning under awful taxes paid to Rome, +one-third of all produced, the writers say. No wonder the Jews were +longing for the new time, the great time, the king, the Old Scriptures +had told about. They are so afflicted, so depressed. The government of +man had been a failure with them. Would not the day soon be at hand +when God himself, through some vicegerent, would come to the world +and rule in pity? Then the wicked would no longer thrive, the just +would live in delight, the very face of the world would be changed, +all would be transformed into love and beauty, and Palestine would be +the heart of the new world, and Jerusalem the capital of a perfected +humanity. The Scriptures had said it. The prophets had said it. + +Nursing these lovely and lofty expectations the Jews patiently waited, +bearing with many wrongs. All classes shared alike in the great +delusion, rich and poor, high and low, priest and peasant. That a +mighty king on his chariot was coming in the clouds was the common +belief. The too literal reading of the old-time prophets had led a +whole race into a futile misconception. The world was _not_ coming to +an end at all. The Jews were a people easily mis-led. Their confidence +in the supernatural was overwhelming. It was a quality inherited from +their pagan ancestors. Their very neighbors were heathen and worshiped +mystical gods. Tens of thousands, mostly foreigners, had set up +heathen temples and consulted heathen oracles right there in Galilee. +Every time the young carpenter went to Jerusalem His eyes fell on some +vast edifice dedicated to Jove or Juno, and strange gods were +worshiped almost in the shadow of the great temple. This was not all. +The very books read by the Jewish priests in the synagogue, or village +churches, were filled with superstitious tales, with dreams and +visions. In these books the people were told of times when angels +walked upon the earth--they would walk again was the belief. The +outcome of their wonderful superstitions, teachings, and their +surroundings was an abject belief in marvels and impossibilities. If +the most cultured and thinking persons lost their confidence in the +marvelous, they kept it quiet. It was, besides, a day of jugglers, +sleight of hand performers, and magicians. The peasants, mostly +half-educated, could believe in anything. There was no knowledge of +science available to show them the utter falsehood of things their +eyes seemed to behold. The commonest laws of nature were not +understood. The priests themselves did not know that the world was +round. The common people were sufficiently credulous to accept the +most astounding things. In short, the astounding things were to them +the natural things, the expected. No wonder they misunderstood the old +prophets of the Bible, and the signs of the times. No wonder they were +believing and alarmed when John, hurrying from the wilderness, shouted +to them to be ready, to hurry to the Jordan river, confess, and be +baptized. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + The Fairy Prince. His Home is everywhere. John the Baptist + is preaching down by Jericho. The young Jesus hears of him + and goes a hundred miles on foot to see him. A stranger + steps down to the River to be baptized. Look quick, it is + the Lamb of God! John is put to death in a palace by the + Dead Sea. A Woman's Revenge. + + +The young carpenter in his pretty Galilean village was, in a way, a +witness of these strange things. He heard in the synagogue the report +that the world was coming to an end. He, too, had read the awful +forebodings in the Old Scriptures. He may, too, have believed in the +coming disaster, but it is not likely. Vaguely, He interpreted the Old +Bible to mean something else. Between its lines He saw the shadow +coming of a spiritual, not an earthly king. Who that king should be, +He never dreamed. The voice of John He only heard in the distance--far +down by Jericho, and amidst the desolation of the Dead Sea. The cry of +the Baptist scarcely reached to remote little Galilee. + +He had no dreams, this Galilean youth, no visions to tell Him of a +glory coming to Himself. It is to be remarked even that visions and +dreams never came to Him at all as they seem to have come to Daniel, +to Buddha, to Confucius and to Mahomet. Neither by vision nor voice +was He bidden to go to some great work. He was not clothed with +infinite power at the time we are speaking of; He was simply a sweet +and beautiful Galilean youth, with the grace of God upon Him. + +In all Palestine now people were not agreed as to what the new kingdom +that was coming to the world would be. Some looked for the earth +suddenly to be crashed to pieces. Some looked simply for a renewal of +the earth. Some said the righteous dead would come out of their graves +and help govern. Some said all nature would be changed, and a wondrous +king would come straight from Heaven. When the simple folks of Galilee +talked to the Carpenter about it, He told them they were all mistaken. +It was the "_Kingdom of Heaven_" that was coming, he said--a +revolution in human hearts, when mankind would be made better, and +every one would do as he would be done by. It is doubtful if they +understood Him. That, they felt, was not what the Scriptures had said; +and doubtless many began to think the wonderful teacher wandering in +His mind. Yet many believed on Him. + +For a little while now He goes about His beautiful Galilee like a +fairy prince, despite poverty and despite foes. He is so gentle, so +kindly, so loving to the poor! He is the kind physician, the balm in +Gilead. For a while He is met with hosannas; He has no riches, but +every peasant's house is His welcome home. That transcendent smile, +that low sweet voice, is His password to believing hearts. He must be +the coming king, they think; still, they do not understand. He is so +simple, so all-love. He tells them that they themselves are the +kingdom; and again they do not understand. "Surely Thou art the Son of +God," they cry, and the ground He walks on is sacred. Some call Him +the "Son of God." Yet not _once_ did He call himself the "Son of God." +It was the enthusiasts who called Him that. Often He referred to +himself as the "Son of Man"; but, in his Syriac dialect, the word +signified only man. After all it was only the village carpenter's son +who was saying all these mysterious things! + +In the days we are describing at Galilee just now, John the Baptist is +still crying to the people of Jerusalem, and along the Jordan, to +hurry to the river, to repent, and to be baptized. He has a school +down there, and disciples of his own. They are greater extremists in +their teaching than the quiet and lovable Galilean, who, till now, is +hardly a public teacher at all. John is not only prophesying a speedy +coming of a new king to the world, a Messiah, he is threatening an +early destruction of almost everything, save the lives of the baptized +and the repentant. He has alarmed all Palestine. A great moral and +social earthquake is taking place. Nor is he backward about still +condemning the king himself for his unlawful marriage. The court is +becoming disturbed, and the doors of Machero prison in a little while +will open to the great prophet and preacher. The alarm among the +people everywhere continues very great. Thousands confess their sins, +enter the sacred river, are baptized, and now await the coming of the +end of the world. + +The young carpenter is just now in Galilee, perhaps for a little while +only, back again from a long absence of solitude in the desert. Louder +and louder, nearer and nearer, comes to the youth at Galilee that cry +of John. Full of interest to see and hear the great reformer, He, and +a few of His friends, start for the Jordan river. It is nearly a +hundred miles away, to where John is, and they go on foot. + +Let us also go to the Jordan for a little while. We turn our steps to +Bethabara--a little village up the river from the Dead sea. We see a +great crowd of excited people there. John himself is there. He is +still telling them of the coming king, the Messiah of the world. But +he does not dream from whence that king is to come--from earth, or +from Heaven. Shortly something tells John that a great person, unknown +to him, is there in the crowd, and will ask to be baptized. John +wonders who it can be. In a little while a stranger steps down to the +river bank--goes to the water's edge and asks to be baptized. John +does not know Him at first; but shortly a spirit voice whispers to +him, "It is the man from Galilee." It is the Lord. Watch--and as He +comes out of the river you will see the sign. The Holy Spirit in the +form of a dove will rest upon Him! Overawed by the tremendous +announcement, John at first feared to baptize. "Yes," said the +Galilean, "let it be so," and it was done. As the stranger came up out +of the water, John saw the dove, and, to the amazement of all, the +Heavens opened, and a voice called, "This is my beloved son." The +astonishment of the multitude can never be imagined. + +After two thousand years, travelers cross the ocean simply to go and +stand a moment in holy reverence at the spot where believers say God +first spoke to Christ on earth. John at once told some of his +disciples to look--quick--"It is the Lamb of God." Two of these men +followed the mysterious stranger, saying, "Master, where dwellest +Thou?" He answered, "Come and see," and he took them with him for a +day to His temporary lodging place in the village. One of them was +Andrew, who breathlessly hurried to his brother Simon, and told him +the great news. "We have found the Christ, Him of whom Moses wrote." +Other friends quickly gathered in, and as one of them named Nathaniel +approached, the Galilean, without knowing who it was, called him by +his right name. A wonder had been performed. It was enough. "Thou art +the Son of God," cried Nathaniel, and they would have worshiped Him +then and there. "Thou shalt see yet greater things than these," said +the Christ, for it was indeed He, and in a little time He slipped away +to the desert as He had so often done before. + +We will not follow Him there, though tradition tells strange and +unexplainable things as to how Satan tried to tempt Him, and how the +temptation was resisted by the Galilean, though the nations of the +world were offered Him. + +After forty days He returned and went to His dear, sweet Galilee. We +shall go along, for there are troublous times by Jerusalem and in +Judea. In a little while, too, the king of Galilee has thrown John +into a prison that belongs to his dominions down near the Dead Sea. +John's religious, revolutionary, and semi-political preaching is at +last too much for Herod Antipas. Possibly, it was while he was yet in +the desert that the Master heard of the imprisonment of the prophet. + +Very shortly a strange message came from John to the Man of Galilee. +John has heard anew of the Master's triumphs, and two friends are sent +to Him to ask if He is indeed the Christ--"or, do we look for +another?" More proof, it seems, was wanted. John had seen the dove +that day at the river, but John had never seen a miracle; and in that +day wonders and miracles were the only accepted proof. The answer +comes back to the prison by the Dead Sea,--"Go and tell John the +things which you do see and hear; tell him how the blind are made to +see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, even the dead raised to life, +and the gospel preached to the poor." If John got the answer we do not +know. It would be sad to reflect that John died without knowing that +this young carpenter, whom he baptized that day in the Jordan, was the +Messiah he had prophesied. When the two messengers left, it was then +the Galilean turned to the listening crowd and said, "Among them that +are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the +Baptist." How believing hearts must have swelled when He added, "He +who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John." The +promise rings on these two thousand years, and will ring on forever. + +Not long has the Galilean been in His home when news comes of the +awful tragedy back there by the Dead Sea where John is. + +On the high and desolate rocks close to the Dead Sea there is a +prison and a palace. Possibly there is not another citadel in the +world built amidst such colossal, such difficult scenery. Dark, +desolate mountains are all about it. It is reached through almost +inaccessible valleys. Near it the angry Jordan, with a roar, tumbles +into the Dead Sea and dies forever. The Dead Sea itself sleeps a +thousand feet below--and beyond the hills, lies the burning desert. +Altogether it is one of the most God-forsaken places in the world. Yet +in the midst of this desolation an old king built the mighty fortress +of "Machero." It was destroyed upon a time, and now Herod Antipas, the +Galilean king, has restored it in tenfold splendor. In the center of +it, and on its highest crest, he has built a gorgeous palace of +Oriental beauty. Far down under the marble floors of the palace is a +prison. Let us for a moment look down that prison corridor. In the +farthest cell there is a familiar face. It is the face of John--John, +who, only the other day we saw baptizing the Lord in the river Jordan. +He, to whom thousands flocked to be baptized and saved from the +coming destruction, is himself in a felon's cell. One wonders at the +daring of it. There are two reasons for it. One--he had railed too +often against the people in power, and the hypocrisy of the times. In +his zeal for truth, in his fearful warnings, in his tremendous +language, it was honestly feared he might create a national +disturbance. The poor, the uneducated, the superstitious, were massing +themselves around him as if he were a god. King Antipas had gone to +Rome upon a time, and, being enamored with his brother Philip's wife, +ran away with her to Galilee. Her name was Herodias. John, bold in +this as in all things, so old writers say, told the adulterous couple +what he thought of them. He even told the king that he had poisoned +his brother to get his widow. The king personally had liked John, and +often listened to him gladly. He knew, too, that John was adored by +the people, whose anger _he_ had reason to fear. But Queen Herodias +had other thoughts. John's accusations had insulted her. She longed +for some fierce revenge. The time has come. It is the birthday of the +king, and, with Herodias, and an hundred courtiers, captains and +generals, he has come to this grand palace and citadel of the +mountains to celebrate it in an Oriental fashion. It is midnight in +the palace, but the gorgeous chambers are ablaze with light. Music and +laughter resound from the open windows, for it is a sultry night of +June. Outside the castle, it is inky darkness. The mountains are +tenfold desolate in their silence to-night--far below the Dead Sea +sleeps in fearful midnight. East of the sea, and beyond the hills, is +the scorched and sandy desert. It too sleeps--and is silent. Here and +there a flash of far lightning crosses the horizon, betokening a +desert storm. All is fearfully lonesome out there in the midnight of +the mountains. How different all within! The gay scene grows gayer +still--the bright lights grow brighter--the banqueters are glad with +wine--a new flush is on every cheek, joy and revelry fill the whole +palace. There seems nothing to add to the appetite of pleasure. But +wait--there is a dance--a beautiful young girl half-clad flies into +the room; the music changes--and in a moment she is executing a +sensuous dance of the Orientals. She is the daughter of the queen, and +she is very beautiful. That she is not a professional dancer--just a +beautiful girl--adds to the sensuous delight. Quickly the dance is +done--and amidst the applause of all the court, and with flushed face, +she passes before the king and bows. Drunken with wine and the +banquet, the king seizes her hand and offers to reward her with +whatever she may wish--if need be, with half his kingdom. + +"What shall I ask of him?" she whispers to her mother. Herodias' +chance had come. Revenge is sweet to evil people. In a moment she +thinks of John. He is down there in the prison right below the banquet +hall. He has heard all the night's revelry--he has seen from his cell +window the dancing lights reflected against the gray, dark rocks +outside. Yes, revenge is sweet. "Salome, daughter, tell him to kill +John the Baptist for you--to bring his head up here on a platter." +Heavens! was ever such a wish before! There is a little pause. Again +the fair girl is before the king. She has said it. Unwillingly--but +because of his word, and because of his nobles present--he grants the +request. There is a low, sad whisper from the king to a soldier +present, and in a few moments the cell door in the prison below opens. +Murder is nothing to an Oriental king. The deed is done--and on a +golden charger the bleeding head of one whom Jesus called the greatest +human being in the world is carried into the room. Herodias has had +her revenge. The curtain goes down on one of the awfullest scenes in +human history. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + An Oriental Wedding, and the first miracle. Jairus. "Little + Maid, Arise." The Light of the World. The Poet of the Lord. + Do we know what a Miracle is? + + +The blood of John probably strengthened the Master's spirit, for His +immortal deeds now all at once became open and public. The day of his +"miracles" had come. + +Very soon now He was asked to a little wedding at the village of Cana. +His mother also was there, and some of His brothers and sisters, and +His disciples. It was to be a more joyful event than the awful thing +He had heard of in the hills by the Dead Sea. The most famous marriage +in all history was being celebrated. The Master's first miracle is to +be witnessed. It is twilight of a delicious summer evening in Galilee. +As was the custom among the Orientals, the bride has been carried in +state to the groom's home. It is a bright and hilarious affair. All +the youths in the village are on horseback riding in the gay +procession. There is music of drums and flutes, and song, and all the +little street is ablaze with torches. In front of all, the bridesmaids +come, laughing, and singing, and carrying flaming lamps. The bride, +garlanded with roses, and covered with flowing veil that envelops her +from head to foot, blushes at her own loveliness. Who that happy girl +might be whose marriage story was to live a thousand years we will +never know. Could she, as in a dream, have read the future, how +extreme her happiness would have been. After two thousand years how +glad we would be only to know her happy name. It is after dark; the +stars are out on blue Galilee now. The scene has changed. The invited +guests are now in the home of the happy groom. The governor of the +feast, or the master of toasts, sits at the head of the banquet table. +At a modest place near the center of the table sits the Nazarene +carpenter. He is loved in Cana, as everywhere in Galilee, for His +gentle kindness to the poor. The story of what happened to this +carpenter at the Jordan river has not reached Galilee--the greatness +of the guest at their side is as yet unknown. But there is one present +who knows mighty things. For thirty years Mary, the mother, has kept +the secret told her by the Angel of the Annunciation. It is ten +o'clock--the feast is almost over--the singing, the dancing, and the +joyousness go on. Suddenly the girls waiting on the banqueters see the +wine is done. What shall they do? One of them by accident, perhaps, +mentions it to Mary. Suddenly her mind is filled with an ambitious, a +glorious, thought. She glances toward the middle of the table where +sits her son. The secret of thirty years is burning in her heart. As +she, too, is waiting on the table, she walks to where her son is +sitting and softly, confidently whispers, "They have no wine." His +time has come. In a few words He tells her to have the girls fill all +the six water jars close by with water--and Mary bids them do as He +has said. "Then," said the Master, "bear it to the governor of the +feast." And when the man at the head of the table tasted it, behold +the water had been turned to wine. It was the first miracle of the +Master's life. Now He was consecrated indeed. His disciples saw what +He had done, and for the first time fully believed on Him, and the +fame of that great deed spread to many people. + +He is no longer the simple village carpenter, He is now the Christ, +and in a few days around and about the beautiful blue lake of Galilee, +close by, He will be carrying the glad tidings to all the world. + +It was soon after one of these meetings by the waters of Galilee that +He performed another of the most beautiful and striking miracles of +His life. Jairus, a rich man and a high elder in the Jewish church, +came to Him at a feast given by Matthew and begged Him to come and +heal his little daughter who was sick. If only He will lay His hands +on her, she will be well. There was a little delay, for people crowded +all about the Master as He started on the roadside, to hear him talk, +and praying to be healed. One poor sick woman secretly touched just +the hem of His garment, her mighty faith telling her that even this +little act could make her whole. Jesus turned to her, and simply said, +"Daughter, go; thy faith hath saved thee." + +The delay is awful for the agonized father, who knows not one moment +is to be lost. Suddenly comes a messenger flying to him to tell him it +is already too late--don't worry the Master--the little girl is dead. +Instantly Jesus turned to the broken-hearted one and in deep +compassion told him to have no fear--only believe. In a few minutes +they are at the rabbi's home. The hired mourners and the flute +players, as is the custom, are already there. They laughed at Him when +He told them the little girl was not dead, but sleeping. Turning the +crowd away, He took the little cold hand in His, and sweetly said, +"Little maid, arise," and she arose and went about the house +rejoicing. The miracle made a tremendous sensation, and multitudes +were touched by it. + +Now His home will be Capernaum, almost at the head of the dear lake. +The little carpenter shop in the narrow street at Nazareth is closed +forever; Joseph, the father, has passed away, and sleeps with the sons +of David; Mary, the mother, lives in the town of Cana, where she first +came from; the young carpenter with the soft speech, the tender eyes, +the golden hair, and the radiance on His face goes up, and down +through Galilee--and they call Him "The Light of the World." + +Capernaum, with its houses of white marble, reflected in the blue +waters of Galilee, was, in the Master's day, like Nazareth, one of the +delightful spots of Palestine. All was fresh, green, and restful; and +round about the land was called "The Garden of Abundance." And there +too is the little plain so filled with green fields and flowers and +running brooks that men likened it to "A pure emerald." It was in this +little land of loveliness, surrounded by all that was enchanting in +nature, that Jesus was to begin His public teaching. No wonder that He +found in beautiful nature a thousand indices to the majesty and +goodness of the Creator. No wonder that His language was the language +of poetry, and His similitudes the reflection of the fields and the +flowers. He was in the land of idealism--of fancy--and He himself was +the poet of the Lord. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they +grow." "If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done +in the dry?" "'Tis your Father's good pleasure to give you the +kingdom." "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." "We have piped to +you, and ye have not danced." + +The whole race of men there are idealists. There was not a better +place than this Galilee in all the world for Christ to be born in. +This is the spot of all the world for a new religion. These Galilean +peasants are not reasoners, they are simply believers. They are the +children of faith. Sad enough it is that the centuries of time, and +the hands of war, changed all the beautiful scene. Even the climate +lost its loveliness--there is almost nothing left that is lovely in +dear Galilee any more save its enchanting lake. All else is desolate +now. The marble houses of Capernaum are now adobe huts, roofed in +straw; the fields are bare and yellow; the trees are dead these +thousand years. Nothing is green there any more. How changed from the +perfect loveliness of that other time, when the Savior of mankind, +amid the roses of Palestine, and the lilies by the sea, walked and +talked and healed the poor. + +It was as a healer of the body, not less than as a healer of the soul, +that the miraculous carpenter now walked from village to village all +over Galilee, followed sometimes by a handful of disciples, sometimes +by a multitude of men, women, and children, though occasionally by +hooting enemies. But what wonderful things He did--and how many poor +He helped! The occasional miracles described in the Testament are +probably not even a fraction of what He did. Why, the evangelist John +says, he does not suppose the world would hold the books telling of +all of them. Of course, this is momentary hyperbole. The people of +the East often exaggerate in telling of what they saw. They are the +greatest tellers of beautiful stories in the world. But were these +things miracles? The world goes on asking this question. Do we know +what a miracle is? "A miracle is an impossibility," say the wise men +of science. "No law of nature yet was ever set aside." Let us not +forget, however, that the Galilean never claimed to set absolute law +aside. By supreme faith in the Almighty, in Himself, He helped the +law, instead of setting it aside. + +A people, superstitious and ignorant of every scientific law, wondered +to see Him do what He did. At that hour of His consecration, in the +Jordan river, Providence gave Him a new birth; and in that birth, a +strength to overcome men's minds--a strength to awaken dormant action +in their bodies. Even the poor sick man He met at the roadside should +be getting well, not dying--Nature intended it so--but pain and +misfortune have cost him every resolution. The Christ came by, the +sunlight of His face, the blessing of His words fall upon him, and he +smiles. "Help yourself," says the Master, "you can do it--only think +so. Do you believe me?" "Yes," cries the weary one, "I believe, help +thou my unbelief." The Master smiles and takes him by the hand. +Instantly the encouraged mind acts on the half withered form. His +blood starts, his nerves thrill,--the miracle is done. + +No, we do not understand--not quite--neither do we understand how a +drop of rain revives a blade of grass, nor how a night's dew wakens +the roses to an untold beauty. Genius is born. The astronomer opens +his book and without an effort understands the stars. The gift of +stirring thoughts, of lifting human souls, is born. No being in the +world had such anointing from above, such Godsent powers, as He who is +just back from the Jordan. He believed in Himself, and that was half +the battle--the other half had to be fought by the soul asking aid. +One must believe. No faith, no miracle, is a principle. Not once did +an unbeliever receive help from the Master. It was impossible. +Impossible then as now. The strong faith of two beings is needed to +produce a wonder. Only two or three times in His history did Jesus +perform a miracle without some human being's faith--and those two or +three wonders lack a perfect confirmation. It is not in question here +whether God, who made every law of nature, could not suspend them +every one if He wanted to. He would not be God, all powerful, if He +could not. It is unimportant to us whether the Galilean did wonders by +His supreme faith, His control over men's minds (a control given Him +there at the Jordan river), or whether His Father in Heaven reached +forth a hand each time and helped Him. + +The peasants of Palestine knew little of any fixed law of nature. They +did not ask as to that. Simply the doing of the unusual was enough for +them. They demanded wonders--and healing of the sick by a word, or a +touch of the hand, was a great wonder,--a miracle. He who could +simply influence mind was the Master. The Galilean was born anointed +with the power. He knew it--and only asked others to believe. The +people of that day asked for wonders. Mere assertions of truth were +not enough. "Give us a clap of thunder, or shake the earth, if You +would have us believe in You. Suddenly cure these sick, and we will +know Your power." He did it, not for a show, but out of pity. And the +healing made adorers for the truths He taught them. One thing is sure, +He never doubted His own beliefs, His God-given powers. In the +solitude of the desert He had reached definite conclusions. All His +assertions were positive. If He said things in parables, it was +because His hearers had no understanding of plain truth. We talk to +children that way when we tell them stories. His wonders, or miracles, +were for the same purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + A wandering Teacher. Lives in a borrowed house at Capernaum. + The Testament Books, fragments written from memory. The + whole Law of Life boiled down to Seven Words. He visits Tyre + by the Ocean. Walking on the Sea. A hard saying, and not + understood. His friends begin to leave Him. They demand + Wonders, Miracles. Raffael's great picture. + + +At this time the wonder-working carpenter had some dear friends in +beautiful Capernaum by the lake. There were two fishermen there, +brothers, Peter and Andrew. Peter was married and his wife and +children joined the two brothers in the earnest welcome to the Master +whenever He returned from His journeys among the lake villages. + +How often He went to Jerusalem never will be surely known. Sometimes +He returned to Peter's home right after a long rest in the solitude of +the desert, bordering on the east side of the lake. There was a Greek +country there called Decapolis. Though also a province of Rome, it was +an alliance of ten confederated cities, and all worshiped the heathen +gods. Over into this strange confederacy the Master also went +sometimes, and the welcome His kindly message met was as warm as in +Galilee itself. He also went over to Tyre and Sidon, by the +Mediterranean sea, at times, and learned at first hand the workings of +heathendom as practiced by a cultured people. On every hilltop, as He +went and came, He saw temples to the gods of Greece or Rome. Here, as +elsewhere, He was going and coming to preach to the poor. He was the +poor man's Christ. He himself often had nothing. It has been said that +it was only as a poor wandering teacher, possessed of nothing, not +even a place to lay His head, that He went all about Galilee. In +Capernaum He lived in a borrowed house, or from the hospitality of His +two dear friends. + +But right now, rich or poor, He is commencing the teachings and the +wonders that are to make Him the loved and the hated of the world. To +the believing He will show that He is not poor; in fact, that He has a +friend ruling in the clouds of Heaven. The disappointed ones, who, +mistaking the signs, had looked for a real earthly king, persecuted +Him at every roadside. The very orthodox Jews hated Him--called Him a +Sabbath-breaker, a glutton among sinners, and a blasphemer of God. +They seemed incapable of understanding anything He said. He talked by +figures and parables--He told them stories--He talked of His father +God--and His sonship--they would not see the spiritual sense in which +He said all things. They put false words into His mouth, and then +demanded He should prove them true. They listened only to deny, and to +defame. Then again they demanded wonders, miracles--more wonders, more +miracles. It was their only way of proving things. Had there been no +wonders, no miracles, no seeming impossibilities performed, Christ +would have had no followers in Palestine. Asserting things was not +enough. "Prove to us that you are God by doing wonders." As He never +had said that He was God He could not prove it. "I and my father are +one," He told them, but only in the sense that every Christian is one +with the father. They could not, would not, see it, and at times would +have stoned Him from their towns. In His meekness, His gentleness, He +bore it all. Sometimes hundreds, thousands, would hear His words, see +His miracles, and believe. Other thousands, though seeing, believed +not. Some of His own nearest friends, not grasping His meaning, turned +their backs and left Him. + +Do not even to-day many feel that He should have spoken plainer, or, +is it that our few fragmentary stories of His life are misconceived, +confused, misinterpreted, mistranslated--and in a sense falsified by +two thousand years of time and change of methods of human thought? No +one knows. The Master did not speak the language of the Bible, not +even the language of the Jews. His was a Syrian dialect called +Arimean. It was the tongue His mother spoke; the same dialect they +talked, and laughed and sang in, that night of the marriage in Cana. +Let us not ask too much of the Testament. Time and circumstances do +strange things with human thought and speech. Despite mystery, and +despite fragments, in the great story, enough is left clear to teach +us the spirit of the Golden Rule. Christ said that was enough. The +people who wrote the books of the Testament wrote wholly from memory, +and some of them were now old men. John was ninety, and was then +almost the last man on earth to have seen Jesus alive. Dates, deeds, +times, places, words, are sometimes much confused in the Testament. +Some things are omitted by one and told by another. Yet the spirit of +each Testament book is the same--and all as authentic as writing from +memory would permit. The Testament books are fragments only--yet +piecing them together what a beautiful whole remains! Sometimes one +wonders that just plain uncultured fishermen could write so +beautifully. It would require a much larger book than this is intended +to be to repeat all the tender stories, the touching words, of the +Master that are portrayed by these inspired fishermen by the sea. +Even they did not tell all. In every village in Galilee, on all the +winding roads, along the dear lake, in every hamlet, synagogue, the +feet of the Master went. Every hour saw miracles of healing, and every +poor peasant heard words of kindness. What delightful little journeys +they were in the beautiful land as the Prince of Peace passed, +scattering blessings. To the happy little communities it must have +sometimes seemed as if the new kingdom, the promised hour, was there +already! Such crowds pressed to Him that time and again He would climb +into a little boat on Galilee lake, ask His friends to push it a +little from the shore, and there, from this improvised altar on the +sea, talk to the crowds on the shore. + +And what did He say to the people standing on the shore? "They were +only the needed things," said in a clear, simple, beautiful language. +If He said them in parables often, it was because the people of His +day understood things better said in that way. Things were made +clearer, stronger, if illustrated in stories. The great Lincoln +understood the effectiveness of such an art, and pointed many a +political moral by a human story. If, occasionally, the Master spoke +in terms too mysterious to be comprehended by even His disciples, it +was occasionally only. The needed things the common wayfarer could +understand then, understands them to-day. He boiled down the whole +duty of life into seven words, "Do as you would be done by." This, He +said, was all there is to religion. How simple, how just, how +necessary, if we hope for happiness even in our every-day life. + +Once at the dawn of a beautiful summer morning in Galilee, the Master +stood on the edge of a mountain and chose twelve disciples to help Him +teach, and to the whole world delivered the wonderful message known as +"The Sermon on the Mount." Lovelier words were never spoken--so +simple, so true, so direct, so sustaining to human hearts, that they +were to reach through all times and to all men. It ended with the +great promise that "unto him who sought God's kingdom all things +should be added." The promise of that morning in Galilee sustains +mankind forever. + +Once He went over to the little city of Tyre by the Mediterranean, +perhaps to teach some there. Possibly it was the only time the Master +ever beheld the ocean. Tyre, with its minarets, its monuments, its +temples, its white sails on the sea, was a heathen city. One can fancy +how profoundly stirred a soul like His, steeped in a love of nature, +must have been at the first sight of the ocean. There were the white +ships going to every known land of the earth--there was a new and +picturesque people; there was heathendom, in luxurious idolatry. The +little journey served Him as material for many a reflection later in +His Galilean home. + +His name was not wholly strange in the beautiful heathen city by the +sea--for it is told how a woman, a Greek, met Him, threw herself at +His feet, and beseeched Him to heal her daughter. The persistence, the +faith of this heathen woman, that He could do it, even without seeing +the afflicted daughter, led to a miracle. As in almost all His life +the miracle came only after the absolute show of faith on the part of +the one asking. No faith, no miracle, was a constant teaching. + +Only a little time there by the blue sea now, and He is soon off for a +three days' stay in that heathen land--the desert cities beyond the +Jordan. Heathen as they are there, they follow in multitudes and are +astounded at His wonders, for He heals many of the sick. + +There, too, almost on the edge of His own country, He feeds another +multitude. It is the five thousand people who have followed Him to a +lonesome place in the country. They are filled, and they glorify His +name. As darkness comes on the vast crowd that He has fed goes home +rejoicing--while the disciples enter a boat, and, despite a coming +storm on the lake of Galilee, start to the other side. Jesus Himself +goes up on a lonesome mountain to pray. The night is utterly dark on +the sea, and the wind howls around the foot of the mountain and over +the tempest-tossed waters. Naturally, the disciples and the boatmen +are alarmed. Their boat is about going down--the wind is more +threatening--midnight is on the sea. Once there is a little rift in +the clouds, and the half-light of a summer moon falls over them; the +sailors glance out onto the waves and behold the form of a man walking +toward them on the billows. It is a spirit. The phantom--as phantom it +surely is--fills them with alarm, but a voice cries out, "Be not +afraid, it is I." It is said, Peter seeing some one walking on the +water tried it himself, and would have drowned had not the strange +spirit taken him by the hand. Then the phantom itself got into the +boat--the winds at once went down--and, as the little ship touched the +shore, the amazed disciples discover the night phantom to be the Lord +Himself. + +The weird story instantly is sent to all the neighboring villages, and +again people come in multitudes, some to be healed, some to revile. +They were willing enough to be healed, everybody, yet the unbelieving +also were there in crowds, and, strangely enough, despite wonders, +miracles, and healing, a storm of opposition grows. His Galileans +themselves even are joining His opponents. It is all unexplainable. + +To us of the twentieth century it would seem that seeing the miracles +He did, and hearing the Heavenly teaching that fell from His lips, the +whole world would have fallen down and worshiped. Perhaps He said too +many things that they could not understand. + +He went up to Capernaum that morning for a little bit, and talked to +the people in the village synagogue. "I am the Bread of Life," he +said, "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, +ye have no life in you." This was too much for their small +understandings--not a soul knew what He meant. "This is a very hard +saying," His hearers answered. They puzzled their brains over it a +little; loss of faith was seizing on them. Some of them commenced +leaving Him. Then He said something harder still, "If this about the +flesh and blood startles you, what would you say to see me ascending +up where I was?" Now, still, the mystery had deepened; more people +left Him. In a tone of overwhelming sadness He asked His twelve +apostles "if they too would leave Him"? The storm of hatred was +breaking everywhere. Enemies surrounded Him; only a few seemed +absolutely faithful. The rabbis, the scribes, and the big doctrinaires +at Jerusalem had their spies everywhere, watching for His smallest +word to ensnare Him. They surely, earnestly, believed Him a foe to all +their Jewish church. He was teaching people to despise their great +prophet, Moses, and to follow the vagaries of a new, unheard of +religion. He was to them worse than the heathens across the border. + +What a change it all was! Even here in His own beautiful Capernaum +they began to deny Him. Pharisees, Sadducees, and every conceivable +enemy of the new faith are concentrating in crowds to traduce Him. +Once more they demand a sign from Heaven--again, a clap of thunder, a +sudden earthquake, or something, if He wants to prove that He is +really the Christ. To their insolent demands He naturally makes no +reply. Then more than ever conspiracy to destroy Him is rapidly being +set on foot everywhere. Shortly He will leave this people by Galilee +and their hypocrisies and falseness forever. Of course, His immediate +friends all around Lake Galilee and His disciples are mostly sticking +to Him, but not all of them--many have gone back on Him. + +One day walking on a country road He asked His disciples who the +people really said He was? They answered that some thought Him one of +the old prophets, risen from the dead. + +Herod up at Jerusalem believed Him to be John the Baptist, whom he had +murdered to please a dancing girl that night in the castle by the Dead +Sea. Herod was much alarmed about it all, too. "But who do you say +that I am?" the Master asked again--and Peter said, "Thou art the +Christ." "Tell no one this," continued Jesus, and then He explained +to them privately His coming sufferings and death. They were all +astounded. But these sufferings simply "had to be"; likewise His +death. It seemed impossible. + +He spoke to them then about life's duties, the futility of riches, of +earthly success, and added, "What shall it profit a man to gain the +whole world and lose his own soul?" There was much thinking now, but +still little believing. In less than a week He took three of His +disciples on to a high mountain to pray, and, while there before them, +He was transfigured for a little while. "And the fashion of his +countenance altered, and his raiment was white and glistening." Not +only that--two angels, or spirits, appeared in glory with Him and +talked about the death that was to come to Him at Jerusalem. Shortly, +as the Master and His disciples went down the mountain side, they met +a crowd gesticulating and shouting over an epileptic boy led by his +agonized father. Some of the Apostles had tried to cure this boy and +failed. The father prayed to Christ for compassion. "If thou only +canst believe," answered Christ, "all things are possible." Weeping, +the father said, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief"--and the boy +at once was healed. The scene on the mountain and the story gave rise +to that greatest picture in the world, Raffael's painting of the +"Transfiguration." It is in the Vatican at Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + Jesus goes alone and on foot to Jerusalem, to try and prove + Himself. In six months they will kill Him. The rich Capital + no place for Socialism. "If thou be Christ, tell us, + plainly." He is a fugitive from a city mob. The Raising of + Lazarus. Again the people are following Him. The great + Sanhedrin is alarmed. "This Man has everybody believing on + Him! He will create a Revolution yet." Jerusalem is in + political danger, anyway; so is the Roman Empire. Everything + seems going to pieces. "This Man has too many Followers; we + must kill Him." Judas is hired to betray Him. + + +There is but a little stay in Capernaum now, the great Galilean will +scarcely walk by His beautiful lake again. He is now thirty-two years +old and more. + +In a few days His disciples will have gone up to Jerusalem to the +great festival, the feast of the tabernacle. It is said that some of +the nearest relatives of the Galilean did not believe in Him even now. +It was they, however, who told Him to go up to Jerusalem to the +headquarters of the opposition and "prove himself," if He could. "Show +Thyself to the world," they said, "these things are not done in +secret." And so He went alone and on foot. + +Six months--and it will be the end. They will kill Him. His meditation +on that lonesome foot journey to Jerusalem, with death and the cross +as its last goal, we will never know. + +The great Jerusalem is full of strangers. Tens of thousands are now +beginning to hear of the great Galilean for the first time. There is +great excitement in the city. Most of the newcomers take time to talk +of Him. He is on every tongue. "When does He come, and from whence?" +"Galilee?" "No good can come from there; that is sure." "Where is He +now?" "Why do the people shout?" "What does He look like?" "Will He be +welcomed or stoned?" + +Suddenly the sweet face of the Master himself is on the temple porch +in Jerusalem. Look, He is teaching the people. How strange, how +embarrassing the situation. Save for a little coming of believers and +friends, men and women who have come to Him from Galilee, He is +almost without a friend in all that splendid city. If many souls, +hearing, believe in Him, it is dangerous to say so. All such will be +turned out of the synagogue, their houses and their lands taken from +them. Anyway this great, unbelieving city is not the place to preach +humility in, nor love for the lowly, nor the giving away of property, +nor for the reproaching of the rich. That is a kind of socialism +usually wanted by people who have nothing. This splendid city, with +its minarets and domes, its gorgeous temple, and the magnificent +structures built by Roman emperors, is full of rich people, full of +aristocrats; and is governed by proud priests, who look upon the +Galilean reformer and His small following with utter contempt. + +One day when He was walking on Solomon's porch of the temple, numbers +of Jews came around Him and tauntingly said, "How long dost Thou make +us to doubt? If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." He answered, "I +have already told you, and ye believed not." "The works I do in my +Father's name bear witness of me." Then He happened to say something +very mysterious. "I and my Father are one." That was too much for +them. Not knowing what it meant, they tried to stone Him out of the +city. "I have done many good works," He continued, "for which of those +works do you stone me?" "We stone you for blasphemy," they cried, "and +because being a man Thou makest Thyself God." He had to fly. Another +bitter charge against Him had been His healing the sick on Sunday. Not +even a good deed dare be done on the Sabbath, was a doctrine of these +extreme interpreters of the Mosaic law. Once the Lord restored a blind +man to sight on a Sunday, and the poor man was almost mobbed because +of it. + +The wrangling of the scribes and doctors about Him still goes on. +There is not a moment of peace for Him. He is even in constant danger. + +On a slope of the Mount of Olives, where He often sits summer evenings +looking down to the city at His feet and lamenting over it, stands +the little hamlet of Bethany. Three good friends of his live there. +Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. Many a time after tiresome +disputes and wranglings with insolent priests and rabbis in the city, +who were only trying to entrap Him, He goes to this quiet little home +among the olive groves for rest. + +After a while He leaves the neighborhood of the great city entirely, +and goes over the Jordan near the desert, to the very spot in fact +where John baptized Him two years ago. What strange feelings must have +possessed His soul while there--there where the dove had come down on +Him, and where the great voice had called Him "the beloved Son"! There +His public life commenced. And now He is there again. Not with the +voice of God speaking to Him.--No--He is a fugitive from a city mob. +Yet a great many people from the villages come to Him down there by +the Jordan and believe on Him. Many wonders are again performed. Many +people are healed. A part of this restful time away from Jerusalem is +spent close to Jericho. A lovely plain is there with delightful +plantations and gardens of perfume. "It is a divine country there," +said Josephus, the historian, but in those days it was all fresh and +green--the climate different from now. Lover of beautiful nature as He +was, this little spot of roses and verdure must have delighted His +soul. + +In a few days His dear friends Mary and Martha, back there in Bethany, +send to tell Him that their brother Lazarus, who is very dear to Him, +is sick. + +"Let us go back there at once," exclaimed the Master. His disciples +tried to warn Him. "Why,--they stoned you and you had to fly just +now,--will you risk going back?" He reflected a moment in silence, and +then told them, sadly, plainly, that Lazarus was dead. "Let us go." +And some of the disciples said, "Let us also go that we may die with +Him." + +It is only some twenty-five miles perhaps, and they have come near to +the village. It seems the friend had been dead four days already. But +the coming back is to be followed by one of the astonishing wonders of +Bible history. Lazarus is to be brought to life. The names of Lazarus, +with Mary and Martha, had been well known in Jerusalem, and numbers of +its good citizens had come out to the village to condole with the +bereaved sisters. Hearing of the Master's approach, Martha hurried out +to the edge of the village and met Him at the door of her dead +brother's tomb, a place cut in the solid rock. "If thou hadst been +here, my brother had not died," cried the sister, weeping. "He will +rise again," the Master answered, simply. "Yes, I know, at the +resurrection," said Martha. Again he spoke. "I am the Resurrection, +whosoever believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Hast +thou faith?" And she answered, "Yes." Instantly she ran and told her +sister, and she, too, came, believing and worshiping. "Did I not tell +thee," said the Master, "that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst +see the glory of God?" Then He commanded the door of the tomb to be +taken away--and, in a loud voice, bade the dead to rise. + +In a moment the living Lazarus walked out of the tomb. Some of the +Jews, seeing it, believed. Some of the higher classes also believed. +However it was done, it had been an astounding wonder, and the +excitement ran like wildfire into the city. The great Sanhedrin and +chief priests, hearing of it, instantly called a secret council. + +"What shall we do?" they said. "This man doeth many miracles. If let +alone, all men will believe on him--and the Romans will come and take +our place and nation away from us." There was an ex-high priest named +Annas at this secret meeting. He was a religious tyrant, who had never +lost his power in the Jewish councils. His son-in-law, Caiaphas, was +officially high priest, but only as his tool. Annas was the power +behind the throne. His wishes, his commands, prevailed everywhere. The +murderous strings were pulled by his hands. Annas hated Jesus, hated +the apostles, hated every new doctrine; and possibly, too, he truly +feared that any new religion or excitement might disturb Jewish +politics, might bring on rebellion, might even bring the hatred of +Rome on the Jews. He did not know that the hatred of Rome was already +turned against Palestine; nor that Palestine, Jerusalem, Rome itself, +were all at that moment on the road to destruction, but it is from +causes with which the teaching of the Galilean, whom he is about to +murder, has nothing to do. "It is better to kill this religious +fanatic and disturber and save ourselves," said Annas to the great +council. "We will not do it with our own hands--we will arrest Him, +bring Him before the judges, and incite the mob to do the rest." + +And so an order was sent out that the kind Jesus should be arrested +wherever found. The miracle at the tomb, however performed, or however +believed, had proved to be the most important act of the Galilean's +life. Now it was, alas, to be a warrant for His death. "Now," said the +Sanhedrin council, "it is going too far--all the world is running +after Him." + +In perhaps a week after this there was a little supper at Martha's +home, in Bethany, only two miles out of the city--and the Master was +there, and the resurrected Lazarus sat at the table with them. +Singularly enough Judas, the coming traitor, was also there, and +complained of Mary's using some precious ointment to bathe the feet of +the Master. Because he was treasurer for the apostles and a thief, he +wanted the money value of the ointment put where he could steal it. He +was now already preparing himself for the great betrayal. + +Out of curiosity to see Lazarus, the resurrected one, many went to the +village that night from Jerusalem; some of them also were converted. +The priests, hearing of this, decided it was best to put Lazarus also +to death. The great wonder performed at the tomb had alarmed them. It +had not converted them. + +In a few hours, believing people, hearing that the great Galilean was +entering the city again, went out to meet him, swinging palm leaves +and shouting hosannas. Many even threw their mantles down for Him to +ride over and hailed Him king of Israel. Some of the bystanders, +looking on with contempt, even asked Jesus to silence and rebuke His +zealous followers. "No, no," He answered, "were these to hold their +peace, the very stones would cry out." Again all kinds of snares are +set for Him, every word is watched. Though He is again permitted to +talk at the porch of the temple every day, spies are there listening. +He is hated in the great city. + +Pretty soon they will call Him a criminal for doing cures on the +Sabbath, for with their laws one scarcely dared eat his dinner on a +Sunday; not this only, they will persecute Him for saying He is a king +when there is no king, save Tiberius at Rome. Sometimes the Galilean's +own talk seems wilder, less comprehensible than it even was to His +native villagers. He has himself become so wholly spiritual, so filled +with a quick coming of the new kingdom, that He hardly realizes the +material life about Him. + +Occasionally He climbs up to the top of the Mount of Olives, +overlooking the beautiful city, and sits there for hours, meditating +on its spiritual destruction--a destruction He had come to prevent, +and cannot. Even a material destruction is hanging over Jerusalem. In +thirty-seven years it will be burned to the earth--and where the +gorgeous temple stands, the mosque of Omar will one day lift its head, +type and temple of Mahomet, whose creed would have broken the Master's +heart. It seems the Master in His soul knew all that was about to +happen. Could He not have prevented it? By a miracle could He not have +destroyed all His enemies at a single blow? He did not do it. He only +said, "It is the father's will, these awful things that are about to +happen." He would not shirk them. He regarded Himself foreordained to +suffer. To His mind the Old Scriptures foretold His awful sacrifice. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + The last supper. Leonardo's great picture. Betrayal. With a + rope around his neck, the Savior of mankind is dragged + before a Roman Judge. The scene at Pilate's palace. Pilate's + wife warns him. The awful murder and the End. + + +One evening He and His disciples sat together at their evening +meal--it was to be their last on earth. It is doubtful if the +disciples really believed all was to be finished so soon. Yet He had +most earnestly told them of His coming death. It was now in the +Passover week--and the Master and His nearest ones proposed +celebrating one of its festivals in private and alone. "But where?" +asked his disciples. "Well," He had said, "go into Jerusalem, and the +first man you meet carrying a pitcher of water, follow him to the +house where he goes; there tell the owner I am coming, and he will +show you an upper room, all prepared for us." Two of them went as +told, followed the man with the pitcher, and found all in readiness +for the little supper. That evening the Master and His disciples took +a walk together from little Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, to +Jerusalem. It was their last walk together on earth. At this supper +where they now are, the Galilean once more tells His disciples the +fate awaiting Him. He even points out the betrayer; but they do not +seem to know His meaning. + +Quietly, and aside, He whispers to Judas to "Do that which you are +going to do quickly." It seems that Judas at once slipped away from +the eleven and went out to hunt up the enemies of one he called +Master. For a trifling sum of silver he had sold his own soul. + +This scene, like that of the Transfiguration, has been celebrated by +one of the great pictures of the world. Leonardo da Vinci's picture of +the "Last Supper," in an old church at Milan, Italy, is in itself a +miracle of art. Perhaps no painting on earth has attracted so many +believing pilgrims to see and to sigh over the sorrow of the Master. + +That very night when the moon rose over the towers and walls of the +city, Jesus and His disciples left the supper room and secretly went +out across the little brook Cedron and entered an olive orchard, +to-day known as the Garden of Gethsemane. It is close to the city +walls. There in the moonlight the disciples, tired and afraid, and +probably hiding from their enemies, lay down on the grass and slept. +The Master Himself stepped a little into the shade of the olive trees +to pray. He knew the hour had come. + +In a little while, it was the midnight hour now, he heard men coming, +with stones and swords and lanterns. Fearlessly He stepped out into +the light of the full moon and asked them whom they were looking for. +They answered, "Jesus, of Nazareth." He said quietly, "I am He." At +the same moment Judas, the betrayer, walked up and kissed Him. This +had been a sign agreed upon between Judas and the priests, as to which +one to capture. + +The little handful of friends with the Lord now tried to give battle, +but He would not permit them. He was at once bound, and carried back +into the city. It is past midnight. He is first conducted before +Annas, the church tyrant, who sends Him to Caiaphas, the high priest. +There He is questioned and tortured. By the time it is daylight He is +sent to the judgment hall of Pilate and accused. Pilate is a Roman. +Under the Roman law there still must be some pretense of a charge +against a human being before he can be put to death--some charge of +wrong. + +It is now seven in the morning. Priests, scribes, Pharisees, all come +before Pilate in a howling mob, leading the Savior of mankind with a +rope around His neck. They had tortured Him half the night--they have +decided He shall die; they only want permission to kill Him, or have +Him killed by Pilate. + +As it is the holy festival time, custom does not permit the mob to +enter the heathen palace of Pilate. So they stand out in the street, +on a place called the "pavement," and howl. + +"What is the charge against Him? What has this man done?" demands the +Roman governor, with a show of justice as he steps out to the front of +his palace and looks at the mob. "He says he is Christ, the King," +some of the accusers answer. Pilate goes back into the great hall, +with the marble floor and the gilded ceilings. He himself has no love +for the Jews. They have no love for Pilate. He knows the Jerusalemites +to be a seditious lot of zealots, quarreling forever among themselves, +and fanatical in their adherence to the laws of Moses. The Jews know +Pilate to be a hater of their creeds and customs. They regard him, +too, a brutal governor; but now they would use this brutality against +one of whom they were a little afraid, for in the villages this +Galilean, whom they were persecuting, had many friends. Would not the +people rise, moved by His wonderful miracles, and at last put an end +to all their religious pretenses? It was the temple-people, the +Sanhedrins, and the Pharisaic priests who stood in front of this mob, +gathered at Pilate's palace on that early morning. They had already +decided their victim must die, and they were inciting all the ignorant +to violence. + +Because of the Roman occupation, Pilate's approval was a necessity +before they could quite kill a man. They reckoned, however, that he +would want to please them some, and so lessen his own unpopularity. + +In a little time the governor called Jesus into the judgment hall. +Looking at the wronged, the suffering, the persecuted being who stood +before him, the blood falling from His poor body to the floor Pilate +asked Him plainly if He were the king of the Jews? "Do you ask that of +yourself," said the persecuted but heroic prisoner, "or did others +tell it of me?" + +Pilate was in fact greatly impressed by the face, serene, even in +suffering, and the mild words of one falsely accused. The Savior +explained that if He was a king it was not of this world. His kingdom +was of the spirit. Pilate did not quite understand that. He himself +was not very spiritual. Jesus added, "I am a witness to the Truth." +"Then what is Truth?" said Pilate. We can only guess the answer given +him. It may have greatly moved the Roman, for he at once went out to +the mob assembled on the pavement and said, "I find no fault in this +man." Some one in the crowd spoke up and accused Jesus of stirring up +the peasants in Galilee. + +"If he is a Galilean," said Pilate to himself, "he must be tried by +Antipas, the Galilean governor." Reliable tradition says that they +also shouted at him that this was the very Child Jesus, whom Herod +tried to kill when he massacred the children of Bethlehem. Pilate had +never heard of the flight to Egypt nor of the return. He supposed the +Child Christ dead. Now he is astounded, and alarmed, for where had +Jesus been all these years? Had His origin, His identity been kept a +secret? Does not this tradition and Pilate's alarm add strength to the +supposition that years of His life had passed in the secret of the +desert? + +Pilate gladly sent him to Antipas, who that very day happened to be in +Jerusalem at the festival. The Galilean ruler had heard of Christ a +thousand times, and often had longed to see him and talk with him, but +most he was curious to see a miracle performed. Again the Master is +accused, but to the many questions of Antipater He makes no answer +whatever. Neither does He perform some miracle for the curiosity and +sport of the Galilean court. Offended at His silence, and greatly +disappointed, the king mocks Him, and arraying Him in ridiculous +garments sends Him back to Pilate. But he has found no fault in +Him--no act against the laws of Galilee for which he dare punish Him. + +Again He is before Pilate, the Roman, again full of pain, and +bleeding, He answers mildly as before, or else is silent, submitting +to outrageous injury. Three times Pilate goes out before the crowd and +tells them that Christ has done nothing worthy of death. "Again I +tell you I find no fault in Him. I sent Him over to Antipas, the king +of Galilee. He also finds no fault worthy of death. Let me chastise +Him and set Him free." + +But the crowd yelled the louder for His blood. Once the wife of Pilate +comes and whispers to him to "have nothing to do with that good man, I +have been forewarned in a dream." Again Pilate earnestly strives to +save Him. Again he addresses the mob, "You know it is our custom to +release a prisoner at this festival. I have Barabbas, the robber, here +and Jesus. Let me set Jesus free and hang the robber." "No, no," cry a +hundred voices; "free Barabbas and crucify the heretic." The Roman, +accomplished in killing men, practiced in cruelty as he is, shudders +at the fearful injustice. He knows the Galilean has done no wrong. The +bruised and bleeding body of the Master waits in silence and prayer +there in the hall of the palace. The cries for His murder reach His +ears--they grow louder and louder. Pilate, confused as to the law, as +to his duty, and perhaps alarmed, weakened, in a contemptible moment +of cowardice, yields. + +But first he steps to the front, and in a loud voice exclaims, "Look +you, I wash my hands of the blood of this good man." He could do +nothing more. + +In a moment the robber is set free, and the Christ, followed by a +multitude, some deriding and some weeping for pity, starts for the +awful place of execution. Once as He goes along the thorny way, He +hears pitying women bewailing and weeping. Turning His face to them, +He cries, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep for +yourselves and your children." + +That weeping, that sorrow, has continued two thousand years. Humanity +will weep forever over the awfulness of what happened. It is hard to +think that God ordained any of this suffering of Jesus. More likely +the Master, in the extremity of His zeal for humanity, believed His +very blood on the cross a needed sacrifice to awaken the world. He +was human. His road from Pilate's palace to the cross has been +followed in tears by millions of people. The awful picture of what +happened there is too dreadful to describe. John, the Evangelist, +himself was present--the only eye witness who has written of it, yet +not even he has the courage to tell the story beyond a dozen verses in +the Testament. The disciples had deserted the Lord, and were in +hiding. They were in fear. They could not drink the cup the Master had +to drink. A few women, including the mother of the Redeemer and her +sister, were present to the very end. To make the anguish as +disgraceful as possible, the Master was nailed to a cross between two +thieves. It was the most agonizing kind of execution known to the +cruel Roman law. Some Roman soldiers put Him to death, as ordered by +their governor, but the blood of it all was on the hands of fanatics +and priests. + +Pilate, in mockery of the Jews, whom he despised for this murder, +forced on him, put an inscription over the cross saying, "The King of +the Jews." The mob of murderers wanted him to amend the phrase, and +have it read, "He said He was King of the Jews." Pilate declined, for +Jesus had never said that. Besides, Pilate had had enough of the +horror that, like an earthquake, was to shock the world. He had washed +his hands of it. + +The deed done, the anguish over, Joseph, a secret Christian convert, +though a rich member of the Sanhedrin, asked Pilate for the body of +Jesus, and put it in a new tomb of his own, hewn in the solid rock, as +was a custom of the land. + +On what is now known as Easter morning, just as the dawn was breaking +over the hills of Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of the +dead Master. It had been opened by angels, as she believed, for, on +looking within, she saw two figures sitting there dressed in white. +Very quickly two of the disciples, whom Mary saw and told, came and +looked into the cave also and saw nothing but the linen clothes of the +Master, and went away. The body was not there. Mary waited a little +yet by herself, when one of the angels asked her why she was weeping. +She answered, "They have taken away my Lord." At that moment she +turned her face a little and saw a spirit standing by her. Thinking at +first it was the gardener, she asked it where the body had been taken +to. To her amazement the spirit spoke and sadly said, "Mary." +Instantly she knew it was the Lord. She would have thrown herself at +His feet, but He bade her not to touch Him, but rather to hasten to +the disciples and tell them He was about to ascend to Heaven. + +That day, on a country road, outside Jerusalem, He overtook two of His +disciples, and walked and talked with them all the way to Emmaus, +telling them the great story of the Scriptures, while they walked and +wondered, not knowing it was the spirit of the dead Master. That same +evening, too, that same Spirit of Jesus appeared to the disciples in a +closed room where they were hiding for fear of the Jews. In a little +while the word went round among the followers that the Lord was +risen. For forty days that Spirit, risen from the tomb, was to be seen +by the faithful in Jerusalem and in Galilee. + +To His apostles His appearance in the spirit could not have been +surprising, for He had repeatedly told them that He would be +crucified, and would rise again in three days. As to a possibility of +life after death--there was little or no question among the Jews. The +Sadducees only argued against it. The belief of that time and of ages +before was in a resurrection. Even Daniel had told the people +distinctly that the time would come "when many that sleep in the dust +of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame +and contempt." + +Indeed, Jews at this very moment were expecting Elias and other +prophets to rise from their graves and rule the world from Palestine. + +Whether Christ's physical body also appeared to Mary Magdalene that +morning in the garden we may never know. Lyman Abbott has rightly said +that it is "not even important that we should know." It is sufficient +that the Spirit that never dies was there. His appearance was the +perfect proof of an after life. Pilate and the murderers had killed +only the body, not the soul. + +Quite possibly spirits have been momentarily seen in our later times, +but His, seen by thousands, walked about the earth for forty days. + +That event was to establish a religion that would reform the world and +live forever. The world now knew there was a second life to strive +for--and the road to that life was in being good to one another. +Millions have walked it, and died in peace. They died, not to an +eternal sleep but to waken with the light of Heaven bursting around +them. + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics +(_italics_). + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + +Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained +except in obvious cases of typographical error. + +The transcriber has changed the preface signature "H. S. M. B." to +"S. H. M. B." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Layman's Life of Jesus, by Samuel H. M. Byers + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41500 *** |