"" 113 privileged classes, but upon childlike faith and humble love. It was not to spread downwards, from among the powerful and influential, but to rise from amidst the weak and ignoble, the poor and lowly, who would receive it in love and humility. It was to spread upwards by no artificial aids, but by the attractions of its own heavenly worth alone. It was a vital condition of its nature that it should, for it can only be received in sincerity, where its unaided spiritual beauty wins the heart. Among the "babes were doubtless included the confessors to be won from the world at large, and not from Israel alone, for the law of growth from below, upwards, is that of religious movements in every age and country. All reformations begin with the laity and with the obscure. Jesus had nothing to hope, but everything to fear, from the privileged orders, the learned guilds, the ecclesiastical authorities, and the officials of the Church generally. It sounds startling to read of His thanking God that these all-powerful classes showed neither sympathy for the New Kingdom founded by Him, nor even the power of comprehending it, and that it was left to the simple and childlike minds of the common people, in their freedom from prejudice, to embrace it with eagerness. It was because He saw in the fact, the Divine law of all moral and religious progress. New epochs in the spiritual history of the world always spring, like seeds, in darkness and obscurity, and only show themselves when they have already struck root in the soil. The moral and religious life finds an unnoticed welcome in the mass of the people, when the higher ranks of lay, and even of ecclesiastical society, are morally and spiritually effete, unfit to introduce a reform, and bound by their interests to things as they are.1 The overflowing fulness of heart, which had found utterance in prayer, added a few sentences more, of undying interest and beauty. It might be feared that, if old guides were forsaken, those who took Him for their leader might find Him unequal to direct them aright. To dispel any such apprehension He draws aside the veil from some of the awful mysteries of His nature and His relation to the Eternal, in words which must have strangely comforted the simple souls who heard them first, and which still carry with them wondrous spiritual support, intensified by their awful sublimity as the words of One, in outward seeming, a man like ourselves. 1 Schenkel, vol. i. p. 166. VOL. II. I "All things concerning the New Kingdom are delivered. unto me of my Father-its founding, its establishment, its spread. I am, therefore, the King and Leader of the new people of God-the head of the new Theocracy, divinely commissioned to rule over it. All that I teach I have received from my Father. I speak, in all things, the mind of God, and thus you are for ever safe. No one but the Father, who has commissioned and sent me forth-Me, His Son-knows fully what I am, and what measure of gifts I have received as Messiah. Nor does any man know the Father, in His counsels for the salvation of man, as I, His Son, do, and those to whom I make Him known. I am the true Light, who alone can lighten men, the one true Teacher, who cannot mislead.1 "Come unto me, therefore, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden with the burdens of rites and traditions of men, which your teachers lay on you-you, who can find no deliverance from the misery of your souls by all these observances—and I will give your spirits rest. Cast off their heavy yoke and take mine, and learn of me, for I am not hard and haughty like your Rabbis, but meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For the yoke I lay on you, the law I require you to honour, is not like that which you have hitherto borne, but brings health to the spirit, and my burden is light, for it is the Law of love." 2 Language like this, briefly expanded, for greater clearness, demands reverent thought. Who does not feel that such words could not fall from the lips of a sinful man, but only from those of one whose nature and life lay far above all human imperfection? Who, even of the highest, or wisest, or best, of human teachers, could invite all, without exception to come to him, with the promise that he would give them true rest for their souls ? 3 And who, in doing so, could speak of it as a thing apparent to all who heard him, that he was meek and lowly in heart? Who would think of claiming the stately dignity of sole representative of the Unseen God, and who could speak of God as his Father, in the same way as Jesus? And who would dare to link Himself with the Eternal in a communion so awful and an interrevelation so absolute? He makes us feel that, as we listen, we are face to face with the Incarnate Divine. 1 Kuinoeli Comment. in loc. 2 Meyer, in loc. 3 Ullmann, pp. 73, 74. Hillel u. Jesus, p. 17. Schenkel, p. 169. Keim's Christus, pp. 40, 41. Weidemann, Darstellungen, p. 5. CHAPTER XL. DARKENING SHADOWS.-LIFE IN GALILEE. THE HE rupture with the hierarchical party was not as yet so pronounced as to prevent a more or less friendly intercourse between Jesus and some of its members. An incident connected with one happened about this time. A Pharisee of the name of Simon, who seems to have been in good social position, had met with Jesus in some of the Galilæan towns, and had been so attracted by Him, that he invited Him to his house, to eat with him. This was a mark of high consideration from one of a party so strict, for a Pharisee was as careful with whom he ate as a Brahmin. Defilement was temporary loss of caste, and neutralized longcontinued effort to attain a higher grade of legal purity, and it lurked, in a thousand forms, behind the simplest acts of daily life and intercourse.1 To invite one who was neither a Pharisee, nor a member of even the lowest grade of legal guilds, was amazing liberality in a Jewish precisian. It would seem as if, when Jesus accepted the invitation, the courtesy had already excited timid fear of having gone too far, and had given place to a cold patronizing condescension, which fancied it had conferred, rather than received, an honour by His presence. In the earlier ages of the nation it had been the habit to sit on mats at meals, 2 with the feet crossed beneath the body, as at present in the East, round a low table, now only about a foot in height. But the foreign custom of reclining on cushions, long in use among the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, had been introduced into Palestine apparently as early as the days of Amos,3 and had become general in those of Christ. Raised divans or table couches, provided with cushions and arranged on three sides of a square, sup 1 Jost, vol. i. p. 202. 2 Judges xix. 6. 1 Sam. xx. 5, 24. 1 Kings xiii. 20. Prov. xxiii. 1. 3 Amos vi. 4, 7 (cir. B.c. 790). plied a rest for guests, and on these they lay on their left arm, with their feet at ease behind them, outside. The place of honour was at the upper end of the right side, which had no one above it, while all below could easily lean back on the bosom of the person immediately behind. Hospitality, among the poor, was prefaced by various courtesies and attentions to the guest, more or less peculiar to the nation. To enter a house except with bare feet was much the same as our doing so without removing the hat, and, therefore, all shoes and sandals were taken off and left at the threshold. A kiss on the cheek, from the master of the house, with the invocation "The Lord be with you," conveyed a formal welcome, and was followed, when the guest took his place on the couch, by a servant bringing water and washing the feet, to cool and refresh them, as well as to remove the dust of the road and give ceremonial cleanness. The host himself, or one of his servants, next anointed the head and beard of the guests with fragrant oil, attention to the hair being a great point with Orientals. Before and after eating, water was again brought to wash the hands, as the requirements of legal purity demanded, and from the fact that the food was taken by dipping the fingers, or a piece of bread, into a common dish. To wash the hands before a meal," says the Talmud, "is a command; to do so during eating is left matter of choice, but, to wash them after it, is a duty." 1 66 With all Jews, but especially with scrupulous formalists like the Pharisees, religious observances formed a marked feature in every entertainment, however humble, and, as these were duly prescribed by the Rabbis, we are able to picture a meal like that given to Jesus by Simon." Houses in the East are far from enjoying the privacy we prize so highly. Even at the present day, strangers pass in and out at pleasure, to see the guests, and join in conversation with them and with the host. Among those who did so in Simon's house, was one at whose presence in his dwelling, under any circumstances, he must have been equally astonished and disturbed. Silently gliding into the chamber, perhaps to the seat round the wall, came a woman, though women could not with propriety make their appearance at such entertainments. She was, moreover, unveiled, which, in itself, was contrary to recognised rules. In the 2 Luke vii. 36-50. 1 Tract. Cholin, 105. THE WOMAN THAT WAS A SINNER. 117 little town every one was known, and Simon saw, at the first glance, that she was no other than one familiar to the community as a poor fallen woman. She was evidently in distress, but he had no eyes or heart for such a consideration. She had compromised his respectability, and his frigid selfrighteousness could think only of itself. To eat with publicans or sinners was the sum of all evils to a Pharisee. It was the approach of one under moral quarantine, whose very neighbourhood was disastrous, and yet, here she was, in his own house. A tenderer heart than his, however, knew the deeper aspects of her case, and welcomed her approach. She had listened to the words of Jesus, perhaps to His invitation to the weary and heavy-laden to come to Him for rest, and was bowed down with penitent shame and contrition, which were the promise of a new and purer life. Lost, till now, to selfrespect, an outcast for whom no one cared, she had found in Him that there was a friend of sinners, who beckoned even the most hopeless to take shelter by His side. In Him and His words hope had returned, and in His respect for her womanhood, though fallen, quickening self-respect had been once more awakened in her bosom. She might yet be saved from her degradation; might yet retrace her steps from pollution and sorrow, to a pure life and peace of mind. What could she do but seek the presence of One who had won her back from ruin? What could she do but express her lowly gratitude for the sympathy He alone had shown; the belief in the possibility of her restoration that had been revived in her heart? The object of her visit however, was not, long a mystery. Kneeling down behind Jesus, she proceeded to anoint His feet with fragrant ointment, but as she was about to do so, her tears fell on them so fast that she was fain to wipe them with her long hair, which, in her distress, had escaped its fastenings. To anoint the head was the usual course, but she would not venture on such an honour, and would only make bold to anoint His feet. Unmindful of her disorder, which Simon coldly noted as an additional shame, she could think only of her benefactor. Weeping, and wiping away the tears, and covering the feet with kisses, her heart gave itself vent till it was calmed enough to let her anoint them, and, meanwhile, Jesus left her to her lowly loving will. The Pharisee was horrified. That a Rabbi should allow such a woman, or, indeed, any woman, to approach him, was |