Contrast between Jesus and John the Baptist. to have attained some moral superiority, some knowledge, probably, of the real nature of the new religion, and the character and designs of the Messiah, which had never been possessed by John. With his usual rapidity of transition, Jesus passes at once to his moral instruction, and vividly shows, that whether severe or gentle, whether more ascetic or more popular, the teachers of a holier faith had been equally unacceptable. The general multitude of the Jews had rejected both the austerer Baptist, and himself though of so much more benign and engaging demeanour. The whole discourse ends with the significant words, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Nothing, indeed, could offer a more striking contrast to the secluded and eremitical life of John, than the easy and accessible manner with which Jesus mingled with all classes, even with his bitterest opponents, the Pharisees. He accepts the invitation of one of these, and enters into his house to partake of refreshment (1). Here a woman of dissolute life found her way into the chamber where the feast was held; she sate at his feet, anointing him, according to Eastern usage, with a costly unguent, which was contained in a box of alabaster; she wept bitterly, and with her long locks wiped away the falling tears. The Pharisees, who shrunk not only from the contact, but even from the approach, of all whom they considered physically or morally unclean, could only attribute the conduct of Jesus to his ignorance of her real character. The reply of Jesus intimates that his religion was intended to reform and purify the worst, and that some of his most sincere and ardent believers might proceed from those very outcasts of society from whom pharisaic rigour shrunk with abhorrence. After this Jesus appears to have made another circuit through the towns and villages of Galilee. On his return to Capernaum, instigated, perhaps, by his adversaries, some of his relatives appear to have believed, or pretended to believe, that he was out of his senses; and, therefore, attempted to secure his person. This scheme failing, the pharisaic party, who had been deputed, it should seem, from Jerusalem to watch his conduct, endeavour to avail themselves of that great principle of Jewish superstition, the belief in the power of evil spirits, to invalidate his growing authority (2). On the occasion of the cure of one of those lunatics, usually called dæmoniacs (3), who (1) Luke, vii. 36-50. Luke, xi. 14-26. people fancy themselves witches, so the belief in possession made men of distempered minds fancy themselves possessed. The present case, indeed, seems to have been one rather of infirmity than lunacy: the afflicted person was blind and dumb; but such cases were equally ascribed to malignant spirits. There is one very strong reason, which I do not remember to have seen urged with sufficient force, but which may have contributed to induce Jesus to adopt the current language on this point. The disbelief in these spiritual influences was one of the characteristic was both dumb and blind, they accused him of unlawful dealings with the spirits of evil. It was by a magic influence obtained by a secret contract with Beelzebub, the chief of the powers of darkness, or by secretly invoking his all-powerful name, that he reduced the subordinate dæmons to obedience. The answer of Jesus struck them with confusion. Evil spirits, according to their own creed, took delight in the miseries and crimes of men; his acts were those of the purest benevolence: how gross the inconsistency to suppose that malignant spirits would thus lend themselves to the cause of human happiness and virtue. Another more personal argument still farther confounded his adversaries. The Pharisees were professed exorcists (1); if, then, exorcism, or the ejection of these evil spirits, necessarily implied unlawful dealings with the world of darkness, they were as open to the charge as he whom they accused. They had, therefore, the alternative of renouncing their own pretensions, or of admitting that those of Jesus were to be judged on other principles. It was, then, blasphemy against the spirit of God to ascribe acts which bore the manifest impress of the divine goodness in their essentially beneficent character, to any other source but the Father of Mercies; it was an offence which argued such total obtuseness of moral perception, such utter incapacity of feeling or comprehending the beauty either of the conduct or the doctrines of Jesus, as to leave no hope that they would ever be reclaimed from their rancorous hostility to his religion, or be qualified for admission into the pale and to the benefits of the new faith. The discomfited pharisees now demand a more public and undeniable sign of his Messiahship (2), which alone could justify the lofty tone assumed by Jesus. A second time Jesus obscurely alludes to the one great future sign of the new faith-his resurrection; and, refusing further to gratify their curiosity, he reverts, in language of more than usual energy, to the incapacity of the age and nation to discern the real and intrinsic superiority of his religion. The followers of Jesus had now been organised into a regular sect or party. Another incident distinctly showed that he no longer tenets of the unpopular sect of the sadducees. A departure from the common language, or the endeavour to correct this inveterate error, would have raised an immediate outcry against him from his watchful and malignant adversaries, as an unbelieving sadducee. Josephus mentions a certain herb which had the power of expelling dæmons, a fact which intimates that it was a bodily disease. Kuinoël, in Matt. iv. 24., refers to the latter fact, shows that in Greek authors, especially Hippocrates, madness and dæmoniacal possession are the same; and quotes the various passages in the New Testament where the same language is evidently held; as, among many others, John, x. 20.; Matt. xvii. 15.; Mark, v. 15. I have again the satisfaction of finding myself to have arrived at the same conclusion as Neander. (1) The rebuking subordinate dæmons, by the invocation of a more powerful name, is a very ancient and common form of superstition. The Dæmo niacs. Pharisees sign. demand a his rela Parables. stood alone; even the social duties, which up to this time he had, no doubt, discharged with the utmost affection, were to give place to Conduct the sublimer objects of his mission. While he sate encircled by the of Jesus to multitude of his disciples, tidings were brought that his mother and tives. his brethren desired to approach him (1). But Jesus refused to break off his occupation; he declared himself connected by a closer tie even than that of blood, with the great moral family of which he was to be the parent, and with which he was to stand in the most intimate relation. He was the chief of a fraternity not connected by common descent or consanguinity, but by a purely moral and religious bond; not by any national or local union, but bound together by the one strong but indivisible link of their common faith. On the increase, the future prospects, the final destiny of this community, his discourses now dwell, with frequent but obscure allusions (2). His language more constantly assumes the form of parable. Nor was this merely in compliance with the genius of an Eastern people, in order to convey his instruction in a form more altractive, and therefore both more immediately and more permanently impressive; or by awakening the imagination, to stamp his doctrines more deeply on the memory, and to incorporate them with the feelings. These short and lively apologues were admirably adapted to suggest the first rudiments of truths which it was not expedient openly to announce. Though some of the parables have a purely moral purport, the greater part delivered at this period bear a more or less covert relation to the character and growth of the new religion; a subject which, avowed without disguise, would have revolted the popular mind, and clashed too directly with their inveterate nationality. Yet these splendid, though obscure, anticipations singularly contrast with occasional allusions to his own personal destitution, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head (3)”. For with the growth and organisation of his followers he seems fully aware that his dangers increase; he now frequently changes his place, passes from one side of the lake to the other, and even endeavours to throw a temporary concealment over some of his most extraordinary miracles. During one of these expeditions across the lake, he is in danger from one of those sudden and violent tempests which often disturb inland seas, particularly in mountainous districts. He rebukes the storm and it ceases. On the other side of the storm. the lake, in the district of Gadara, occurs the remarkable scene of the dæmoniacs among the tombs, and the herd of swine; the only tion of the act in the whole life of Jesus in the least repugnant to the uniform gentleness of his disposition, which would shrink from the unneces Rebukes Destruc swine. (1) Matt. xii. 46-49.; Mark, iii. 31-35. 1-18. (3) Matt. viii. 18-27.; Mark, iv. 35-41 Luke, viii. 22-25. sary destruction even of the meanest and most loathsome animals (1). On his return from this expedition to Capernaum took place the healing of the woman with the issue of the blood, and the raising of Jairus's daughter (2). Concerning the latter, as likewise concerning the relief of two blind men (3), he gives the strongest injunctions of secrecy, which, nevertheless, the active zeal of his partisans seems by no means to have regarded. tles sent out. But a more decisive step was now taken than the organisation of The aposthe new religious community. The twelve apostles were sent out to disseminate the doctrines of Jesus throughout the whole of Galilee (4). They were invested with the power of healing diseases; with cautious deference to Jewish feeling, they were forbidden to proceed beyond the borders of the Holy Land, either among the Gentiles or the heretical Samaritans; they were to depend on the hospitality of those whom they might address for their subsistence; and he dislinctly anticipates the enmity which they would perpetually encounter, and the dissension which would be caused, even in the bosom of families, by the appearance of men thus acting on a commission unprecedented and unrecognised by the religious authorities of the nation, yet whose doctrines were of such intrinsic beauty, and so full of exciting promise. Herod. It was most likely this open proclamation, as it were, of the rise Conduct of of a new and organised community; and the greater publicity which this simultaneous appearance of two of its delegates in the different towns of Galilee could not but give to the growing influence of Jesus, that first attracted the notice of the government. Up to this period Jesus, as a remarkable individual, must have been well known by general report; by this measure he stood in a very different character, as the chief of a numerous fraternity. There were other reasons, at this critical period, to excite the apprehensions and jealousy of Herod. During the short interval between the visit of John's disciples to Jesus and the present time, the Tetrarch had at length, at the instigation of his wife, perpetrated the murder of the Baptist. Whether his reluctance to shed unnecessary blood, or his prudence, had as yet shrunk from this crime, the condemnation of her marriage could not but rankle in the heart of the wife. The desire of revenge would be strengthened by a feeling of insecurity, and an apprehension of the precariousness of an union, declared, on such revered authority, null and void. As long as this stern and respected censor lived, her influence over her husband, the bond of marriage itself, might, in an hour of passion or remorse, be dissol (1) The moral difficulty of this transaction has always appeared to me greater than that of reconciling it with the more rational view of dæmoniacism. Both are much diminished, if not entirely removed, by the theory of Kuinoel, who attributes to the lunatics the whole of the conversation with Jesus, and supposes that their driving the herd of swine down the precipice (2) Luke, viii. 40-56. (4) Matt. x.; Mark, vi. 7—13.; Luke, ix. 1—6› Death of John the Baptist. Jesus withdraws lilee. tudes fed ved. The common crime would cement still closer, perhaps for ever, their common interests. The artifices of Herodias, who did not scruple to make use of the beauty and grace of her daughter to compass her end, had extorted from the reluctant king, in the hour of festive carelessness-the celebration of Herod's birthday—the royal promise, which, whether for good or for evil, was equally irrevocable (1). The head of John the Baptist was the reward for the dancing of the daughter of Herodias (2). Whether the mind of Herod, like that of his father (3), was disordered by his crime, and the disgrace and discomfiture of his arms contributed to his moody terrors; or whether some popular rumour of the re-appearance of John, and that Jesus was the murdered prophet restored to life, had obtained currency; indications of hostility from the government seem to have put Jesus upon his guard (4). For no sooner had he been rejoined by the Apostles, than he withdrew into the desert country about Bethsaida, with the prudence which he now thought fit to assume, avoiding any sudden collision with the desperation or the capricious violence of the Tetrarch. But he now filled too important a place in the public mind to from Ga- remain concealed so near his customary residence, and the scene of his extraordinary actions. The multitude thronged forth to trace his footsteps, so that five thousand persons had pre-occupied the place of his retreat; and so completely were they possessed by profound religious enthusiasm, as entirely to have forgotten the diffiThe multi-culty of obtaining provisions in that desolate region. The manner in the de. in which their wants were preternaturally supplied, and the whole sert. assemblage fed by five loaves and two small fishes, wound up at once the rising enthusiasm to the highest pitch. It could not but call to the mind of the multitude the memorable event in their annals, the feeding the whole nation in the desert by the multiplication of the manna (5). Jesus then would no longer confine himself to those private and more unimposing acts of beneficence, of which the actual advantage was limited to a single object, and the ocular evidence of the fact to but few witnesses. Here was a sign performed in the presence of many thousands, who had actually participated in the miraculous food. This then, they supposed, could not but be the long-desired commencement of his more public, more national, career. Behold a second Moses! behold a Leader of the people, under whom they could never be afflicted with want! behold at length the Prophet, under whose government the people |