with his purple and fine linen, and great feasts, and rich Lazarus, with his couch on the stones, and his pauper funeral.

In spite of deductions already indicated, the appreciation Christ met with while He lived on earth came largely from the poor. True, the mob of Jerusalem, hounded on by the rulers, cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" It is, however, certain that among the towns and hamlets of Galilee, Samaria, and Judæa, there were not a few of the humbler classes who relished His teaching and revered His person. The opinion of the masses fluctuated, and their faith was not equally strong at different times; but John tells us that at one time they were so convinced that He was "of a truth that prophet," that they were prepared to initiate a revolution in the State, and to take Him by force and make Him a king. Even in Jerusalem, Christ had at intervals so many admirers, that on more than one occasion, when the men in power would have seized Him, they could not for fear of the populace. To the very last, they used craft in offering violence to Him, because they dreaded popular commotion. On the other hand, the leaders, with rare exceptions, hated Christ, and never relented for an hour. "Never man spake like this man," said their own officers; but the reply is prompt and fierce, "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed on Him? But this people, the common people, who knoweth not the law are cursed." They hated Christ with a satanic hatred, and they scowled on the humble, when these, from time to time, spoke well of, and felt kindly towards Him. Had the poor been left to follow their own instincts, they would have accepted Christ far more largely than they did.

His early followers were almost all poor. If, here and there, men possessing money, like the publican at Jericho, or the collector of dues at the port of Capernaum, gave in their adhesion, this rather hindered than helped Him. He knew also that what had been while He lived on earth, would for a time continue to be the rule after His removal. To the humble His plans might be acceptable; to the high they were an offence. Thus Paul found at a later day that the "wise" and the "prudent" steadily refused Christianity. By the thousand, ere long, the acquaintances of the fishermen, or of the slave Onesimus, cast themselves on Christ, and accepted the cross; but few indeed, for generations, were there of Cæsar's household, or of Cæsar's host, who bowed down to Him as their God.

Whether, therefore, we recall the facts happening during His lifetime, or those which He was aware would happen after His death, we see and understand how full, how constant, and how natural were Christ's sympathies with the poor. Among such He was born; with such He associated; by such, chiefly, He was trusted; by such, largely, He was welcomed; such pitied Him in His sufferings; such bore Him to the rich man's sepulchre; such watched at His tomb, and such witnessed His ascension. The poor, too, were His first ambassadors; to them also belonged the glory of first wearing the martyr's crown. Others came from other grades, and Paul was as welcome as Peter, or Cornelius as she who was a sinner; but the Son of Man gathered into His kingdom, first in order, those whose only joys were beyond the setting sun, and whose possessions on this side of it were but of little worth.

W

CHAPTER VII.

CHRIST AND THE CENTURION.

HEN Christ was numbered as one of the inhabitants of the Holy Land, it was a

country garrisoned by Roman soldiers; and we frequently see in the Gospels the figure of the legionary, as he moved haughtily among those whom he lived to intimidate, and who marked in him the perpetual assertion of their disgrace. They were no longer pointed at by the rivers of Babylon; their dishonour was written upon them at home, living in their still prosperous Land of Promise. These soldiers were, in some instances, attracted by the preaching of the Baptist, and the questions they put when they came to him, with the answers he gave, indicate both how they felt themselves, and what John's opinion of them was. Aware of their irregularities, they ask, “What shall we do?" and his reply points out their faults: "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." Again they appear at the end of Christ's probation, and their conduct is such as to show the accuracy of John's judgment. There, in the common hall, or prætorium, the men who were off duty gathered to mock Christ, in defiance of the laws of

man, as well as the laws of God. A cohort was stationed in Jerusalem, and, unchecked, certain of its members perpetrated the ruffianism described by Matthew, in Pilate's palace. At the cross there was a party of them, and, while the centurion was awestruck with the tragedy of Calvary and its startling accompaniments, the men under him showed no ruth as they broke the legs of the expiring malefactors, or, to make sure work of Christ, pierced Him to the heart. Cæsarea was the usual residence of the governor, and five cohorts were stationed there; or had there their headquarters. Some of these men, because natives of Italy, were known as the "Italian band;" and when Peter was in Joppa, they were quartered in the town. What was the character of their other officers we know not, but Cornelius was a "devout man, and one that feared God with all his house." In the Acts of the Apostles, we are informed that the captain with his troops apprehended Peter and others as they spoke in the temple, acting under the authority of the Sanhedrim. Further on, we read that the "chief captain of the band" rescued Paul from the mob, and carried him into the Castle of Antonia, erewhile the Palace of Hyrcanus, but now a fortified citadel, prepared by Herod as a residence for the soldiers, where, from its closeness to the temple, they could be always at hand in the event of any commotion. Claudius Lysias was this tribune's name; perhaps a Greek by birth; certainly a Roman by purchase; and he is much alarmed when he learns from one of his centurions the quality of Paul, whom, on the occasion just referred to, he was about, without ceremony, to examine by scourging. Presently, we find the apostle in the charge of four hundred and

seventy men, and away by night to Felix. Examined by Felix, he is remanded, left in the charge of a centurion, and practically placed on his parole. Two years slip away, busy years with Paul, doubtless, and not unpleasant, since his friends could correspond or visit with him at their pleasure. After this, when Festus had succeeded Felix, Paul appeals to Cæsar, and in due time is on his way to Rome, in the custody of the centurion Julius, supposed to have been a freed man of some member of the imperial family. Finally, after many adventures, we find the apostle in the Eternal City, where Julius, profoundly esteeming him, places him in the care of the captain of the guard, who again, giving him in charge to a soldier, leaves him, apparently with much the same amount of freedom he had enjoyed in Cæsarea.

It has already been mentioned that one cohort, though a large one, was stationed at Jerusalem, and that five cohorts had their headquarters at Cæsarea, from which it would appear that, taking the legion at six thousand, and allowing ten cohorts to the legion, there was a military force at the disposal of the Procurator, not exceeding three thousand six hundred men; no great provision for the management of so turbulent a dependency as Palestine. The centurion whose servant Christ cured was with his men in Galilee; a portion of the country peculiarly trouble

some.

The Sermon on the Mount had been delivered on a height overlooking the flat on which the town of Capernaum stood, and Christ, when it was ended, proceeded to that city. Respecting this favoured town Dean Stanley says, "Compared with Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, it may be almost said that