the first builders-of whom those now before Him were the representatives-had rejected. Was there any doubt that God would transfer that kingdom to those thus loyal to His Son? He, who now stood before them, and who at any moment might be cast out of the Temple with ignominy, and slain, must be the foundation of the New Theocracy which was to supplant the Old ! 1

The first open attempt at violence followed this parable. The hierarchical party felt that they were meant, and that Jesus had dared to call Himself the chief corner-stone of the future Kingdom of God, which was to rise in the place of that with which all their dignities and interests were bound up. With wild Eastern frenzy, they sought to arrest Him on the spot. But as looks and words, passing among them, betrayed their intention to the crowds around, these would not permit Him to be taken, counting Him, if not the Messiah, at least a prophet. Some, bolder than the rest, possibly laid hands on Him, but they were forced by the surging multitude to release Him. They had to leave the place, and suffer Jesus to escape for the moment. But they had power, and organization, and the people would not always be round Him!

Left in peace, the unwearying Divine Man once more calmly betook Himself to His task of teaching all who would hear.

The die had finally been cast, and the open breach between Him and the Church authorities had been proclaimed by Himself in His last parables. Full of lofty indignation at the hypocrisy and wilful blindness of His adversaries, no less than of compassion for the multitude, He could not repress the crowding thoughts which the last hours raised in His soul, and, as usual, they found expression in additional parables.

"The Kingdom of Heaven," He began, "is like a king who made a marriage-feast for His son,2 and sent forth his servants, as the custom is, to tell those who had already been invited that the time had now arrived. But, though thus once and again summoned, they would not come. Yet, the king, unwilling, in his goodness, that they should not enjoy the feast; in spite of this, sent other servants, once more, to invite them again. 'Come,' ran his message, for I have prepared the first meal of the feast; my oxen and fatlings 2 Matt. xxii. 1-14.

1 Keim, vol. iii. p. 117.

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have been killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage.' But they made light of this fresh invitation as well, and went off, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, while still others took his servants, and ill-treated, and even killed them. Then the king was angry, and sent his soldiers, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Meanwhile, he said to his servants, The marriage feast is ready, but those who have been called were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the highways, where the roads cross and there are most passers-by, and invite to the feast as many as ye find.'

"So the servants went forth from the palace of the king, to the roads and cross-ways, and gathered together all, both evil and good, who were willing to accept their invitations, and the feast-chamber was filled with guests.

"The king had made all preparations for these being nobly arrayed in festal robes, so as to be worthy to appear before him.1

"But, now, when he came in to welcome them, he saw among them a man who had not put on a marriage robe. 'Friend,' said he to him, 'how is it that you have come in hither without a marriage garment? You must needs have known that I provided robes, fit for my presence, for all my guests, and that, to refuse or slight what is thus offered is to show me the worst affront. You know that to do so is to raise the severest indignation in a king thus offended.' 2

"But the man was speechless, for he could not excuse himself.

"Then said the king to his attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the thick darkness outside.'

"Ye know," added Jesus, "how dark our streets are in the night; no windows opening on them, and no lights illumining them. That darkness is but a type of the awful night into which he will be cast out, who appears at the marriage feast of the Messiah's kingdom without the marriage-robe provided by my Father. In that darkness there will, indeed, be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for though multitudes are invited to the feast of the heavenly kingdom, many neglect to secure the marriage-robe, without which no one can see the king!

1 Nork, p. 88. Rabbinical Parable from Koheleth Rabba, 9. 8.

2 Rosenmüller, Scholia. Matt. xxii. 11.

The parable was an enforcement of those just addressed to the priests and Rabbis, but with various additional lessons. The haughty sons of Jerusalem heard, once more, that when the kingdom of the Messiah should be set up in its glory, God would call the heathen to a share in it, while the people of Israel, with their religious leaders—because, as a nation, they had rejected His repeated invitations-would no longer be the one people of God. Still more, they would be visited with the avenging wrath of God, in the destruction of Jerusalem, even before the final triumphant establishment of the New Divine Kingdom. Yet, among the heathen invited to enter it, as among the Jews, God, at the day of judgment, when the kingdom was finally set up for eternity, would separate and judge those who had been wanting in loyalty to Him, and had come into His presence without the preparation demanded. Such would be cast into the outer darkness of Gehenna.

Thus, in the very presence of imminent death, there was the same tranquillity and repose as on the free hills of Galilee, or in the safe retreat of Cæsarea Philippi; the same stupendous claims as Head of the New Kingdom of God, and King over the souls of men, for time and eternity. Within a few hours of crucifixion, and conscious of the fact; in the intervals of mortal contest with the whole forces of the past and present, the wandering Galilæan Teacher,―meek and lowly in spirit, so that the poorest and the youngest instinctively sought Him; full of Divine pity, so that the most sunken and hopeless penitent felt He was their friend; indifferent to the supports of influence, wealth, or numbers; alone and poor; the very embodiment of weakness, as regarded all visible help,-still bore Himself with a serene dignity more than human. In the name of God He transfers the spiritual glory of Israel to His own followers; throws down the barriers of caste and nationality; extends the new dominion of which He is Head, to all races, and through all ages, here and hereafter; predicts the Divine. wrath on His enemies in this world, as the enemies of God, and announces the decision of the final judgment as turning on the attitude of men towards Himself and His message. The grandeur of soul which could so utterly ignore the outward and apparent, and dwell on the essential and eternal; the conscious majesty in the midst of humiliation and danger; the absolute trust that, if the present belonged to His adversaries, the everlasting future, in earth and heaven, was

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all His own, could spring in such a heart, only because it felt that it was not alone, but that, unseen by man, a greater than man was ever with Him. Only when we realize Him as enjoying unclouded and absolute communion with eternal truth and love—Man, but also the Incarnate Divine-can we hope to solve the mystery.

IT

CHAPTER LVI.

JERUSALEM.

T was still Tuesday, and Jesus had not yet left the Temple courts. The deputation from the Temple authorities had come to Him in the early morning, only to retire mortified and silenced, but the interests of all parties were threatened by One who demanded changes so fundamental. All alike, therefore, however hostile at other times, made common cause in trying to get the hated Reformer into their power. It was the same spirit as, in after ages, when far less fiercely roused, burned Arnold of Brescia and John Huss, and strangled and burnt Savonarola, and slew the thousands of victims of the Inquisition: the non possumus of a corrupt ecclesiastical corporation, which would murder in the name of God, because that could be called orthodoxy; but would not reform, because to do so would touch their emoluments and their dignity.

Plot, therefore, thickened on plot. Having themselves failed, the authorities sent some of the Pharisees in company with Herodians, otherwise their deadly enemies, to try to entangle Him by the answers He might give to treacherous questions. Obscure men were chosen, men unknown to Jesus. They were to pretend themselves anxious, as sincere Jews, scrupulous in all duties, to get His counsel on a point much disputed. The snare was no longer laid in the sphere of Rabbinical law, but in the more dangerous one of political obligation, that an ambiguous answer might compromise Him before the Roman procurator. If they succeeded, it would at once transfer the odium of His arrest from themselves, ensure His not being rescued, and make it possible to get Him put to death, for the power of death was in Pilate's hands alone.

The Pharisees and Herodians, though from different prin

1 Matt. xxii. 15-22. Mark xii. 13-17. Luke xx. 20-26. 12th Nisan, Monday at sunset to Tuesday at sunset (2-3 April).