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ineffable. Thus He had but to communicate to others His personal experience to procure for them, too, inward happiness and the conviction of present salvation. In this way He postulated a theory of godliness which all can already enjoy, and which does not depend in any way upon time or place. This it is which gives Evangelical godliness its permanent value, which stamps it with a genuinely religious and moral impress, and renders it independent of all metaphysical and apocalyptic theory.

The revelation of God's Fatherly love and the genuinely ethical conditions propounded by Jesus entail other important consequences which we must note. We have seen that as a result of God's condescending love towards man, the latter no longer needs an intermediary if he desires to approach his Heavenly Father, and therefore the ministry of angels loses much of its importance or even the very reason for its existence. But from the moment that man has free access to God he no longer needs the priesthood to bring him into relation with Him, and the Gospel expressly tends to free the child of God from all human tutelage whatever.1

Although Jesus did nothing towards abolishing the Jewish priesthood, any more than He made any general attempt to put an end to the Old Covenant (believing, as He did, that this would be an inevitable result of the advent of the Kingdom of God 2), He nevertheless entered upon a course which naturally tended to deprive external observances (and, as a

Mark x, 42-4; Matt. xxiii, 8–11. ⚫ Luke xvi, 16; Matt. xi, 12-13.

consequence, the priestly orders) of their importance. Not only had He no sympathy with the Pharisees, but He combated them vigorously. He seems besides to have had little esteem or liking for the Sadducees, who at that time formed the priestly party in Jerusalem. For disciples He chose simple laymen, and the religious faith He inculcated was also genuinely laic, as free from ritual as from theological dogma. He set reconciliation between brethren and filial devotion to parents higher than acts of worship,1 and He did not hesitate to foretell the ruin of the Temple at Jerusalem.2 In His eyes the worship of God mainly consisted in living a life of love in conformity with God's will. To please the thrice holy God and obtain His blessing one must be pure in heart and one's conduct must be in accordance with that ideal, as we noted in the opening paragraph of this chapter. In this respect Jesus did no more than follow the great prophets of Israel, who had already loudly proclaimed that the practice of justice and of virtue in general was better than the sacrifice of blood and all other ritual acts. Adopting and developing in His own fashion, that is, according to the Gospel principles, what the seers of old had preached with regard to this, and combating the empty formalism of the Jewish worship of His day, He established worship in spirit and in truth, which has, alas, not been sufficiently maintained in the Churches themselves even to this day.

We may well say that Jesus, in proclaiming that God is a true Father who bestows His blessings on the good and on the evil and pardons the vilest of sinners, provided only that they repent of their sins

Matt. v, 23-4; Mark vii, 10-12. 2 Mark xiii, 1-2; xiv. 58.

and forsake their former ways, changed the very pivot and basis of ancient religion, both Jewish and Pagan. The predominating feature of such religion was the fear of their deities. The best summing-up of the whole of the Old Testament, as finally expressed in the official Judaism of Jerusalem, is contained in the words from Ecclesiastes: "Fear God and keep His commandments; for that is the whole duty of man." The fear of Divine chastisement and the anxiety to avoid it and to obtain Divine favour, were the motive forces of allegiance, both in ancient Israel and among other nations. That is the reason why piety in general, apart from Evangelical religion, has produced only servile obedience and has proved incapable of rendering man truly happy. It has moreover been chiefly manifested in the assiduous accomplishment of all ceremonial worship, and particularly in the offering of abundant sacritices. Ritualism and servility are characteristic features of the ancient religions, and of all inferior ones. That which essentially distinguishes the Gospel of Jesus, causing it to transcend all others, is that it tends most to transform the naturally selfish heart of man, the origin of all vice, into a new heart, loving and devoted, imbued with love to God and the spirit of brotherhood, and influenced by the Fatherly love of God to all His children. In this respect Jesus inaugurated a new era. If the external transformation of the world, expected and predicted by Him and by the Jews, did not take place, at any rate He laid the foundation for a transformation or renewal important in another respect, the regeneration of the moral world.

Eccles. xii, 15.

CHAPTER V

A NEW PHASE IN JESUS' MINISTRY

1. THE HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS AND THE GOODWILL OF OTHERS.

THE Course of Jesus' ministry was not smooth and uniform, but subject to many sudden turns. It contained not successes only, but also reverses and disappointments. He soon found Himself face to face with the indifference of the masses and the hostility of their leaders. Although He was dominated throughout by the thought of the imminent advent of the Kingdom of God and the urgent need for each to fulfil the conditions necessary to enter therein, Jesus' opinions could not follow an undeviating line in all respects, but underwent certain modifications under the influence of changing circumstances. If we overlook these variations and treat all that concerns His public ministry in the same way, we shall be presenting the facts of the case imperfectly, or even in a false light. This has happened only too often in the past.

We know then, that at first Jesus still shared the Jews' ideas of their nation as a peculiarly favoured people,' but later on, as we shall see, He changed Vide infra, p. 48 et seq.

His opinion in this respect. Evidently it was the sad experiences acquired during His ministry which occasioned the change of view. Although in the beginning He was surrounded and followed from place to place by vast and enthusiastic crowds, especially on account of the cures He effected, He Himself was not desirous of playing the part of thaumaturgist, and was much more concerned to bring about a real change of heart. From the very start, therefore, there was a certain variance between the lofty and fundamentally ethical aims of Jesus and the standards of the populace, eager above all for that which was marvellous, and for the realization of all their earthly dreams. This variance seems to have gone on steadily increasing, and at last Jesus came to the sad conclusion that His ministry had not produced the results He had anticipated, and He began severely to upbraid the cities which had been the chief witness of it, and had not profited thereby to repent of their sins. Many there were who called Him Lord! Lord! but made no effort to conform with His teaching and only deserved His stern reproof.3 For trivial reasons or from purely material interests they refused the invitation to the Great Marriage Supper.4 They could discern "the face of the heaven", foretelling rain or fair weather, but not the signs of the times announcing salvation or perdition.5 The Gospel seed fell not only upon good ground, but yet more abundantly upon the rocky

Matt. xii, 38-9; • Matt. xi, 20-4;

xvi, 4; Luke xi, 16, 29–32.
Luke x, 12-15; cf. iv, 24 et seq.

3 Matt. vii, 21–7; viii, 11-12; Luke vi, 46–9; xiii, 26–30.
4 Matt. xxii, 1 et seq.; Luke xiv, 16 et seq.

5 Matt. xvi, 1-3; Luke xii, 54-7.

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