had done the faith of the Roman centurion, no doubt to the bewilderment of his disciples, who did not yet know, what the Samaritans had known, that he was the Saviour of the world.

From this northwestern limit Jesus and his disciples, probably never staying long in the same place, made their way gradually back to the eastern shore of the lake of Galilee, where they were in the tetrarchy of Philip. The country through which they passed was still more beautiful than the more southern parts of Galilee. They journeyed under the range of Hermon, and passed the high hill of Bashan, with the upper Jordan and the waters of Merom on their left hand, in the month of May, whilst the harvest was going on. A time of rest and possible happiness. Who was there besides the chosen twelve we do not know. Where they tarried and lodged, what route they took, we do not know. But at length they reached that inhospi table coast, where once before the inhabitants had besought the Lord not to sojourn with them.

But the fierce demoniac, whom Jesus had left to bear witness of him, had changed the minds of the people with regard to a second visit from this mighty prophet. They were now willing to receive him, and they brought to him a man who was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. He led him away from the crowd, who in this country must have been half of them heathen, with no motive influencing their coming to him save that of curiosity. For the same reason, probably, to avoid the danger and distraction of a number of curious followers, he bade the man and his friends to tell no one of his cure; but they, not at all understanding his motive, proclaimed the miracle about all that region. Great multitudes in consequence came unto him, having with them lame, the. blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and he healed them all, even though many of them were heathen, as if now he would teach his disciples that the blessings he brought to earth were not to be confined to the Jewish nation. And the people glorified the God of Israel.

Three days this mixed multitude remained with Jesus. He appears to have been dwelling upon one of the mountains on the shore of the lake, sleeping in the open air, as they must have done, for it was now the early summer, and the nights were warm. On the third day, when their provisions were exhausted, he said to his disciples, "I have compassion on this multitude, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way." We often wonder how the disciples could have been so dull as to answer in the manner they did, after the feeding of the five thousand on the passover

eve. But we must remember that in the former case the crowd consisted only of Jews, to whom they considered the Messiah sent; in this the multitude was more than half heathen, of the same race as those who had rejected Christ when he first landed on their shores. The disciples were jealous of these heathen followers, who brought discredit upon their Master among his own nation. They probably thought it impolitic for him to eat as he did with publicans and sinners, though they were at least sons of Abraham, whilst these were Gentiles, who had no part in the Messiah. More willing would even Judas have been to exhaust their little purse in buying bread than see him feed them as he had fed his own people.

But Jesus could not be influenced by any such reasons. These, like the Jews, were also as sheep without a shepherd. He repeated his miracle for them, spreading a table for them in the wilderness, as he had done for his fellow-countrymen, noticing the women and children, who were won to him by his tenderness, giving thanks to the Father of all, as though all there were his children, as well as the descendants of Abraham, his ancient friend. There seems to have been no excitement among them as there had been among the Galileans, who had wished to make him a king by force. The disciples themselves did not seek to fan any such excitement. The crowd separated at his bidding, and he passed over the lake into the near neighborhood of Magdala, a village within two miles of Tiberias, Herod's chief city. We know he had friends in Herod's household; and during the three days he had been staying on the opposite shore he might easily have received tidings that there was no immediate danger in thus venturing into' the close neighborhood of Tiberias.

But though we cannot suppose that the Pharisees from Jerusalem had remained so long in Galilee, other Pharisees, whose hostility they had aroused against Jesus, very soon discovered his return among them, and came to him with the old demand for some sign from heaven. Some Sadducees were now joined with them, a sect with still greater political power than themselves, as the high priests and their families and most of the aristocracy were at this time belonging to it, though it possessed very much less religious influence over the nation. This union of political with religious power made the danger still greater to Jesus; and once more he was compelled to leave the western shores and seek safety in the comparatively friendly country of Philip, the tetrarch of Iturea.

On the eastern banks of the upper Jordan, close upon its fall into the lake of Galilee, still in Philip's dominions, stood Bethsaida; and our Lord,

who was now retracing his steps to the north, where he had before spent some time afar from his enemies, came to this place on his way. A blind man was brought to him, and he took him by the hand and led him out of the town to restore to him his sight; then bade him neither to go back to the town, nor to tell it to any of the townsfolk. He wished to avoid, if possible, any stir in this place, where he was so well known; for it was not more than an hour's walk to Capernaum, which he had not visited since the Pharisees had returned to it, after the passover. Almost as a fugitive now he was passing through a town where he had done many of his mighty works, and many of whose inhabitants had eaten of the food he had multiplied by miracle in the wilderness. Already his heart was heavy with the woe he afterwards pronounced against it. Here he must hide his miracle of restoring sight to one blind man, where hundreds had been witnesses of greater works than this.

Heavy-hearted, his disciples following him with bewildered spirits and disappointed hopes, Jesus went on northwards to the villages near Cæsarea Philippi, a summer city, which Philip the tetrarch had built amongst the hills of Hermon, close to the easternmost source of the Jordan, where a number of rivulets form first a small pool of water and then a stream, rushing through the thickets on the hill-side. It was the loveliest spot whither the wanderings of Jesus had led him. The sultry heat of the lake of Galilee was here exchanged for the cool shadows of groves of trees, and its sandy shores for a carpet of turf. Numberless brooks wound through the fields, scarcely to be dried up by the summer sun; for far above them rose the snowy peak of Hermon, glistening against the burning sky. It was such a place as he must have delighted in, if his heart had been less wounded by enmity, and his spirit less clouded by the sure end which he saw coming nearer and nearer upon him.

He did not here hide himself, as he had done near Capernaum. He called the people about him-the summer crowds, who had probably come north from the hotter atmosphere of the lower lands-and asked them, among other teaching, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" a solemn question for these holiday-makers to consider. It was here that Peter declared emphatically that he believed his Master to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, in spite of all his own disappointment, and the mysterious deeds and sayings of his Lord. But when Jesus proceeded to speak more plainly to his apostles of the certain death which must be the end of the enmity which he excited, Peter

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could not bear it. He knew that as the Messiah his Lord had power t subdue his foes; nay, the prophecies declared that so should the Messiah act. It seemed to him so extraordinary a contradiction, not only of his own hopes, but of all the prophets had said concerning it, that he began to rebuke his Lord. Jesus so answered him that never more did any of his disciples interfere by remonstrance or objection to anything their Master did. "Let us go also, that we may die with him," was all they could say, when he seemed to run into needless danger.

BUT

CHAPTER XIII.

At Home Once More.

UT though Jesus had rebuked Peter, he knew well the condition of mind that had made him speak so rashly. Six days after he took him with John and James into one of the high, solitary peaks of the range of Hermon, under which they had been sojourning. The ascent was a long one, and all the stillness of the mountains gathered round them as they climbed higher and higher into the purer air. They could see stretching southward their own land, which offered no sure resting-place to their Master. The white snows glistened above them, and all the solemn influ ences of silence, and loneliness, and separation, wrapped them round. They forgot the sorrows of the past weeks as the Lord prayed with them on the mountain-height, lifted far above all the cares and ambitions of the earth beneath. Then, as Jesus prayed, a glory shone about him, which transfigured his beloved face, and made his raiment white and glistening as the snow, which dazzled them in the sunshine. And whilst, with dazzled eyes, they gazed upon him, two forms of Moses and Elias, the greatest of the prophets, appeared to them talking with Jesus. Their wondering ears neard them talk, not of the triumphs and conquests of Messiah's kingdom, but of the death which they shrank from thinking of. How long they listened to this heavenly discourse we do not know; but at length, sore afraid as they were, Peter spoke, not knowing what to say. "Master," he said, "it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." Never would he choose to go. down to the earth and common life again, if this heavenly vision would but remain. Even then, as he finished speaking, a cloud overshadowed