confess their error. Such hardness of heart moved the Saviour's virtuous indignation. He gave them a look of dissatisfaction, and with a word restored the withered hand to vigour (Matt. xii. 9-14; Mark iii. 1-6; Luke vi. 6—11). These defeats exasperated his foes. They held a council, and resolved to compass his death. Jesus withdrew. Yet secrecy was impossible. Multitudes followed him: the sick among them he healed, enjoining that silence which was so necessary for his personal safety and the continuance of his great work (Matt. xii. 15-21; Mark iii. 7—12). About this time John the Baptist was beheaded by the same ruler who had put him in prison. As the high-minded reformer lay there, he anxiously and narrowly watched the progress of events which marked the path of Jesus. Though he had given clear and decided testimony to the Christ, yet was he on the outside of the kingdom of heaven, in not having come to those spiritual conceptions of its nature in which its essence consisted. Sharing in a measure the prevalent material notions of the Messiah's kingdom, he expected to find his course take a triumphant character. In that triumph he himself, as the forerunner of Christ, might expect to share. Yet still was he a prisoner. He heard of the great deeds of Jesus which filled the land and dwelt on every lip. These deeds attested the presence of the Messiah. Nevertheless, he was a prisoner. Unable to explain the difficulty, he sent two disciples to Jesus. Our Lord gave, as evidences of his divine commission, the beneficent miracles he performed, and the fact that the poor had the gospel preached to them. This fact contained the key to the understanding of Christ's true position. That position, it implied, was higher than could ensue from any mere material greatness. A ministration of love which specially regarded the poor, John himself must see, could have for its object no earthly ascendancy. But would John comprehend the indication? In order to intimate to him his error and aid in leading him to the truth, Jesus added, 'And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me'—that is, 'who shall not be alienated from me by misunderstanding my spirit and aims' (Matt. xi. 2-19). John's misgivings and hopes were, however, soon to end. Herodias, who lived in incest with Herod Antipas, was more enraged with John than that prince himself. No sooner had she got John imprisoned, than she endeavoured to have him put to death. The tetrarch was unwilling. He feared the people. He also feared John. Herodias watched for and found her opportunity. What Antipas shrunk from when sober, she easily got from him when under the excitement of a banquet. At a festival celebrating the prince's birth-day, Salome', the daughter of Herodias, so pleased him by her dancing, that he foolishly and wickedly promised to give her whatever she chose to ask. Instructed by her malicious mother, she demanded the head of John. Her request was complied with. The Baptist was no more. This look into the interior of a court is calculated to make us shrink back with pain and horror. Too many dark scenes like this have palaces presented. The virtues which dignify and the graces that adorn our race, are most frequently to be found in such humble homes as were those of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth (Matt. xiv. 3—12; Mark vi. 17—29). CHAPTER IX. JESUS FORMALLY APPOINTS HIS TWELVE APOSTLES. April 12th, A. D. 29. The successful efforts made by Jesus, and the attention which he had awakened, assured him that the time was now (April 12, 782 U. C.) come for organising the germ of that church which was to be his channel for conveying to the world the manifold blessings of the gospel. Already had he taken some steps towards this result. Among those who were around him, the characters of some had been thoroughly studied by him. Those who possessed the most promising qualities he resolved to select as his apostles, or messengers to the world, in order that in this character they might be witnesses of what in him they had seen and heard, and so might aid him in laying the foundations of his kingdom on a broad and solid basis. But in so important an act, Jesus felt the need of special aid. Though his life was a continued prayer, and though his mind was in constant communion with God, yet, according to his custom, he withdrew into privacy, in order that in calm meditation he might seek the universal Spirit, and receive light from its original source. Having spent the night in prayer on a mountain-top, he, when morning dawned, calling whom he would of his disciples, chose and ordained twelve of them as apostles, 'that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons.' In fixing the number at twelve, Jesus may have had a silent reference to the twelve tribes into which the people of Israel was divided. The names of these persons were as follows: 1, Peter (Simon, or Simon Peter); 2, Andrew; 3, James (the elder), the son of Zebedee; 4, James (the younger), the son of Alphe'us; 5, John ; 6, Philip; 7, Bartholomew (Natha'näel, John i. 45); 8, Thomas; 9, Matthew (Levi); 10, Lebbë'us (Thadde'üs, called also Judas, Luke vi. 16); 11, Simon (Zelo'te's, or the Canaanite, Matt. x. 4); and 12, Judas (Iscariot, Luke vi. 16; John xiv. 22), who betrayed his Lord. Like their Master, they were all unlettered men of the humbler class; they were also his fellow-countrymen and neighbours, and some of them bore to him the nearer relationship of kindred. They were in consequence well fitted to judge of his pretensions, and, from the nearness in which they stood to him, they were little likely to be prepossessed in his favour. Convinced that the great spiritual revolution which he contemplated would best be effected by men of the people (Matt. xi. 25), he wisely abstained from seeking co-operation on the part of the great, and sought for sympathy, support, and devotedness, in the earnest and unsophisticated natures of Galile'an peasants. And if, in consequence of their standing so much below him in culture, they were unable to set forth the full height of his perfections, yet do their simple narratives, even by their failing to be equal to the great original, serve to point the contrast there is between Jesus and ordinary men, while, in being an unvarnished picture of their own minds, they give us reliable assurances of their entire honesty. As they saw Jesus with their own eyes, or the eyes of their authorities, so they described him, not with the skill of artists, but-which is far better-the faithfulness of men whose sole aim was to speak forth their own convictions, in order to make others sharers in their faith and joy. Heralds and narrators such as those whom Jesus chose, may unconsciously colour, but they do not purposely pervert, still less invent, what they proclaim and record. As witnesses to the truth, they were the best possible. What it concerns all ages to know is, not what they thought, but what they saw; not what philosophy devised, but what the world believed; not what speculation spun and wove, but what Jesus taught, did, and suffered. It is on a basis of facts that the gospel rests. Facts are best reported by unspeculative, uncalculating, unpretending men. Such men were those whom Jesus chose to be eye-witnesses and reporters of his life and deeds. As all were alike apostles, so were they all equal. The same in rank, they had but one Master, Jesus, and one Head, even him that was over all things in the church. Yet, in process of time, diverse natural endowments unfolded themselves in various manners, and to more or less extensive and marked results. Accordingly, in our present Scriptures we find Peter, John, and afterwards Paul, holding the chief place among the propagators of the word of life. Several of the twelve appear but little in the New Testament. We are not, however, to infer that the position in which we there find them is the position which they hold in the church, as seen by him who sees the end from the beginning. Whole spheres of influence, created and filled by apostles, may have been left undescribed. Other spheres, having found a narrator, may have perished from the records of history. And although little reliance can be placed on the statements of early tradition, to the effect that the apostles formally parcelled out the earth between them, in order that literally they might preach the gospel to every creature, there is no reason why we should not believe that all the twelve-save the traitor Judas; together with Matthias, chosen to occupy the office which Judas had dishonoured (Acts i. 15, seq.)—gave themselves in different localities to the great duties imposed on them by the Judge of the quick and the dead. Truly noble men they were. Raised by the divine spirit of their common Master from Jewish fishermen, tax-gatherers, and tent-makers, they became the teachers and the benefactors of the world. Having in themselves but one essential qualification--namely, thorough integrity-they, under the aid of God's spirit, proved equal to the planting of a new religion, which, revolutionising the ancient world, has given to the history of the last nineteen centuries its chief features and its predominating hues. Such is God's blessing on honest endeavours, when undertaken at his bidding and for his purposes (Mark iii. 13-19; Luke vi. 12—16). P CHAPTER X. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, NEAR CAPERNAUM. April 12th, A. D. 29. Having in the sight of God performed a task which was big with consequences, Jesus descended into the level country. Here he was forthwith surrounded with throngs of people who pressed to hear, or even touch him. He healed many. The crowding became troublesome. It was impossible for Jesus and his associates to take food. Still he persevered. Given altogether to his high office, he had no thought for himself. Such extreme devotedness seemed little short of madness to cool and calculating minds which were not filled with his noble enthusiasm. Accordingly, some of his 'friends went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself' (Mark iii. 20, seq.). But his zeal was as sober as it was earnest. It was only a self-forgetful, lofty, and entire absorption in his work that could have lifted Jesus above his difficulties, and carried his doctrine into men's hearts with a resistless force. Such a moral elevation as his, is the only means for reforming the world. Would that after his manner others were equally beside themselves! Desirous of giving expression to his lofty thoughts, in lessons that might enlighten and change the minds of his apostles, and finding the pressure of the surrounding multitudes incompatible with his purpose, he again went up into what Mark terms the mountain-that is, probably, the elevated ground of which so much is found in the neighbourhood of Capernaum. Then having, according to Jewish custom, taken his seat, he delivered what is called the Sermon on the Mount, to the disciples who gathered around him (Matt. v. 1, vii. 29; Luke vi. 17–49). It has been made a question, whether or not the whole of this discourse was then spoken, or whether it was, as a whole, spoken at once at any time, and has not rather, as it now stands in Luke's Gospel, been put together by that Evangelist from words and speeches uttered on different occasions. The question has more interest for critics than ordinary students of the life of Christ. But the long, consecutive discourses found in John's Gospel, show that one who heard the word of life thought that such a discourse as the Sermon on the Mount was in no way unlike the Master's manner of teaching. And certainly all that the said discourse contains is in harmony with what from other sources we know of the mind of Christ, nor will any careful reader deny that such a unity of thought pervades it as seems to indicate that it was uttered at one and the same time. The mere allegation that fragments of the discourse are found detached in different parts, says nothing against an original unity; for there is good reason |