savage assault upon him three weeks before. Since then they had heard of his wisdom and his mighty works, especially of that one at Nain, a village within sight of their own town. They were even hoping to have their own curiosity gratified by some wonder performed among them; but they could not get over the fact that he had been a carpenter in Nazareth, and that all his relations were known by them, poor, undistinguished people, who were considered of no account. Jesus himself marvelled at their unbelief, surpassing any he had yet contended against; and he could not do any mighty work, save that he healed a few sick folk, probably poor people, who knew him better than the wiser and richer men.

From Nazareth he sent out his apostles by two and two to make a short circuit of the towns lying about before meeting him again on an appointed day near Capernaum; for it was safer to be close upon the shores of the lake, whence at any time he could seek refuge in the dominions of Philip, rather than in any of the country places from which there could be no speedy way of escape from his enemies. He himself went round the villages teaching. The district travelled over thus was a small one, and by the separation of the apostles into six parties, every village would be quickly visited. These little places lay close together, and only a central spot would be needed for the gathering of congregations; the Galileans seeming to be always ready to flock together at the first hint of any excitement.

The first news that reached Jesus, when he returned to the neighborhood of Capernaum, was that of the cruel death of his cousin, friend and forerunner, John the Baptist, whose disciples were come to bring him the tidings. The murder of their prophet must have stirred the people to deep indignation, and wounded the tender heart of Christ most keenly. But at the same time his apostles met him, full of triumph at the wonders they had themselves performed during their short separation from him. To some of them John the Baptist had been almost as dear as Jesus was now; and thus two currents of strong agitation ran counter to one another. Jesus himself felt in need of some hours of quietness in which to mourn over his loss, and to hear from his apostles what they had done and taught. But so long as they remained on the western shore of the lake there was no hope of gaining any such leisure time; and he entered into a boat with his disciples and passed over to the other side.

They landed in a solitary spot on the north of the lake, not more than three or four miles east of Capernaum, where the hills shut in a small plot of tall green grass, not yet dried up by the summer's heat. But the multi

tudes of people from whom they had intended to escape for a little while, seeing them depart, set out on foot along the shore, and keeping the boat in sight, with its sails fluttering over the glistening water, they outwent it in speed. It was probably the day before the passover supper, which was kept at Jerusalem; a day on which no work was done in Galilee: and thus, the people gathered from every village and farm-house, and from every fishing hamlet on the shore, until when Jesus reached the desert place near Bethsaida, one of the largest crowds that could ever have collected about him, numbering five thousand men, besides women and children, were waiting to receive him.

He was filled with compassion for them, for they were as sheep having no shepherd. No doubt the tidings of John's murder in prison was fresh among them; and our Lord knew how deeply their hearts felt the loss of such a teacher. He began to teach them in this little temple with the clear blue sky above them; and was not weary of teaching, nor they of listening, until late in the afternoon, when his disciples asked him to send them away before nightfall. There was a lad in the crowd who had brought with him five barley loaves and two small fishes, most likely in the hope of selling them among so many persons, and pushing himself forward in the crowd, as lads are apt to do. Jesus bade the disciples bring them to him; Judas perhaps grudging the money he was called upon to spend for such a purpose. Then he told them to make the company sit down in fifties, the tall, green grass forming couches for them on which they could rest, as in the Paschal supper they were enjoined to "sit down leaning," not standing, as if they were slaves. The command of our Lord was well understood by them; they sat down leaning upon these natural couches as their brethren up in Jerusalem would so rest, when in a few hours they would eat the Paschal supper.

It was a suitable ending for the holiday. The sun was still shining in the west, nor when it went down was there any fear of the crowd missing the way to their homesteads, for the full moon was ready to rise beyond the eastern hills, flooding every mountain track, and every narrow village street, with its silver light. The season was the most delicious of all the year; and the cool air from the lake was sweet and fresh, not chilly or damp. Children were there, some stealing up to the Master's feet, and may be getting a piece of bread from his hand; their laughter and their voices mingling with the graver hum of older people. What a surprise too for the disciples as they began to understand their Master's purpose! This was such a miracle as the Messiah was expected to perform. A table furnished in the

wilderness, as in the times of Moses, when he gave them bread from heaven to eat. What was giving sight to a few blind folk, or even raising from the dead a widow's son in a distant village, compared to this large, public, kingly miracle of feeding thousands of his followers with so small a store of provisions?

There was but one happier hour for them in the future, when they followed their Master in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a year later. But now as they went about among the companies, they spread the story of the wonder then being wrought, until the enthusiasm of the people outgrew all bounds. They resolved to take him by force, and make him a king, sure that thousands would now flock from all quarters to hail him as the Messiah. This was the very danger Jesus had sought carefully to avert, as it would bring him and his party into collision with the Roman govern ment, whose soldiers were garrisoned in many parts of the country. He constrained his disciples, who were unwilling to lose this hour of promised greatness, to set sail, and go on before him, whilst he sent the multitude away. When they were gone, whose wishes and plans were so different from his own, he dismissed the crowds, who obeyed him the more readily as now the night was at hand, and many of them had far to go on foot.

At last, then, Jesus was alone, and, in need of rest more than ever, in need of a moment or two in which he could mourn over his friend, in need of close communion with his Father, he went up into the mountain, at the foot of which he had been laboring all day. The Easter moon shone down upon him full and clear out of the cloudless sky, and lighted up the waters of the lake in which his disciples were rowing hard against the wind to reach the point of the shore he had directed them to steer for. He saw them driven out of their course by the wind into the midst of the lake; but still he lingered on the mountain side hour after hour. Is it possible that, bowed down by the death of John, a foretaste of his agony in Gethsemane made this season of solitude one of bitterness and sorrow? Was his soul exceeding sorrowful within as he watched his faithful followers toiling on the lake apart from him? When the next passover came, the eternal parting would come, when they must sail out into the fierce storm of life alone, without him in the ship; living by the faith, of which they yet showed so little sign. Next passover! Where would they be? What loss would they have to bear then? How would they bear it?

Still he saw them tossing about on the rough moon-lit sea, until, when the fourth watch of the morning was near, he resolved to give them a proof

of his power, which, in after years, every moonlight night, and every fresh burst of life's storm, would bring to their minds. They, looking across the stormy waves, beheld him walking towards them on the sea; and they cried aloud with fear and trouble, for their Lord was coming to them strangely, in no familiar manner. Peter, bolder than the rest, attempted to go to meet him, but his courage failed, and he would have sunk but for the outstretched hand of his Master. When they entered into the boat, the wind ceased, and they, not considering the miracle of the loaves and fishes, were sore amazed within themselves, beyond measure. Their Master, possessing this marvellous power, still refused to be made a king! Their hearts, too hard yet to understand, could not perceive why he steadily opposed all such ambition.

They landed on the plain of Gennesaret, and walked northward to Capernaum, where they were met by numbers of those who had been fed in the desert the day before. It was the first day of the passover, a solemn Sabbath, and Jesus taught in the synagogue openly, and without any opposition, except the murmurs of those who were disappointed by his steady rejection of their desire to proclaim him king. His most hostile enemies, the Pharisees, were necessarily absent at the passover in Jerusalem. But from that day many of his disciples in Galilee left him, not being able to hear or rather to understand the hard sayings, and the reproaches with which he met them. "Ye seek me," he said, "because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." Their love for him was too earthy to bear the test he pro'posed to them, so they went back, and walked no more with him.

"Will ye also go away?" asked Jesus, sadly, of his twelve apostles. "Lord, to whom should we go?" cried Peter; "thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." "Not all," he answered; "have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Already he could point out the traitor in his little camp. Probably Judas had made himself unusually busy the day before in urging on the crowd to make him king by force. They all longed for him to assert his claims; his brethren were constantly urging him to manifest himself; John and James asked him to promise them the chief places in his kingdom; but Judas looked forward to be the treasurer of all the wealth of the Messiah King of Judæa, and no voice had been louder the day before, and no disciple so reluctant to obey, when he constrained them to set sail and leave him alone with the multitude. "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Judas was to live in close fellow

ship with him for a whole year longer; but even Christ could not cast out of him this demon of covetousness, whilst he was cherishing it in his secret heart.

CHAPTER XII.

In the North.

URING this quiet week, with his enemies away, Jesus was busily occupied in the plain of Gennesaret and the region lying about, where, as he passed along the roads or through the streets, sick people were laid, that they might touch if it were but the hem of his garment. But this undisturbed, unopposed course of kindly healing and of teaching ended as soon as the Pharisees hastened back from Jerusalem, not willing to remain at home until they had got him into their power. They began by accusing him of setting aside the tradition of the elders-an accusation he did not deny. But he answered them sternly, calling them hypocrites, and pointing out how they set aside the commandments of God. He deeply offended them by this reply, and the old danger of dwelling in Capernaum revived in greater force. Besides this, it was well known that Herod, the murderer of John, had a great desire to see Jesus; Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, probably warning him of this danger. Herod's city, Tiberias, was on the western coast of the lake, south of the plain of Gennesaret, where Jesus had lately been journeying. It was not more than ten miles from Capernaum; and our Lord must often have been very near it, though it does not seem that he ever entered it.

It was only a few weeks since Jesus had been compelled to quit Jerusalem and Judæa; and now he found it needful to withdraw from the busy, crowded coasts of the lake of Galilee, and to seek the west of Galilee, where he was less known, and where he could quietly instruct his apostles, who as yet knew little of the message they were to teach when he was gone. He went farther north than he had ever travelled, to the very confines of the Holy Land, and to the shores of the Mediterranean sea, so vast and limitless, compared with the little lake of Galilee. But even here he could not be hid; for a certain woman, no Jewess, but a Gentile, who had already become acquainted with his name, no sooner heard of him than she came, and, falling at his feet, besought him to heal her daughter, who was possessed by a devil. Jesus did so, as a recompense of her own faith, praising it, as he