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To proclaim his coming.

to unite the innocency of doves with the supposed watchfulness of the serpent. In declaring the truths which it was the mission of his life to establish and propagate, they were to use discrimination. It were folly to give the consecrated flesh of sacrifices to dogs. It were folly to present jewels to swine, who, finding that these did not satisfy hunger, would crush them into the mire and turn in their voracity upon the givers. Yet, when they had conducted themselves as well as possible, no circumspection could keep them from being assailed with malignity. When one town rejected them they must escape to another, and thus give the whole land an opportunity of knowing what it was that Jesus taught. He assured them that they should not have visited all the towns till the Mission of the Son of Man be accomplished by the establishment of his claims as Messiah, if that be the meaning of the saying, "Ye shall not finish the cities of Israel until the Son of Man come." If that be not the meaning-and I am far from being sure, and give it as the most plausible conjecture—then I do not know what Jesus meant. He was going up to Jerusalem. There were two things to be secured, namely, an increased attention to himself and his words, and a sufficient interest upon the part of the popu lace to give him protection against the growing malignity of the church party-the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees. All this might in some measure be produced by the ministry of the Seventy. The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was now at hand. It was, as Josephus says, the holiest and greatest of their festivals. The people would be assembled in great crowds. It would be an occasion for a powerful prophet to make an impression which should move the whole nation. younger sons of Mary, whom we should call xvii. the half-brothers of Jesus, did not believe he was a prophet, yet perhaps hoped that he might put himself forward as a Messiah, such a Messiah as they, in common with their nation, hoped for-a splendid deliverer, and conqueror, and king. They urged him to go into Judæa, as his popularity seemed waning in Galilee; and moreover, all that he had accomplished was to attach a few fishermen to his cause. He had not won a person of any social or ecclesiastical distinction. To this politic advice, which would have been sound if Jesus had intended to claim and maintain such a Messiahship as they supposed, he returned this reply:

The

Galilee and Sa. maria. John vii., viii; Luke ix.,

"My time is not at present, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but it hateth me, because I testify that its works are evil. Go you up unto this feast. I go not up to this feast; for my time is not yet fulfilled."

They wished him to join their caravan, and go up publicly and conspicuously. His time had not arrived. He would not be precipitated. He would avoid as far as possible giving any occasion to his enemies. He would not be of the party of his brethren. But after they had left for Jerusalem, he arranged his plans and went up to the metropolis in a secret manner. He sent messengers before his face, who made the necessary preparations, so that in the evening he could enter lodgings, rest, and next day proceed on his journey. They were going along the borders of Galilee and of Samaria. At one of the Samaritan villages the party were refused lodgings because they were going to attend the feast in Jerusalem, thus wit nessing against Mount Gerizim. Sectarian rancor conquered oriental hospitality. James and John, the latter generally conceived, I think, to be a sweetish kind of characterless young man, were so enraged that they desired permission from their Master to call down fire from heaven to consume the town. They were not content that Jesus should do it. They desired the personal gratifi cation of vengeance on these people. Jesus rebuked them. They then went to the next village on the route.

Inhospitable Samaritan village.

PART VI.

FROM THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES UNTIL THE LAST WEEK.

FROM OCTOBER, A.D. 29, TO APRIL, A.D. 30-SIX MONTHS.

CHAPTER I.

AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

Feast of Tabernacles. John vii.

In the mean time his brothers, with many other friends, and all the Jewish people who could travel, had gone up to the Feast of Tabernacles. This festival is spoken of in the Talmud as the Feast par excellence, and by Josephus and by Plutarch as the most holy and glorious of all the Jewish Holidays. It was celebrated in the autumn, when the heats were abated and the rains had not begun. The harvest had been gathered, and the Day of Atonement had just passed. In the fulness of their garners, and in the sense of freedom from the guilt of their sins, the whole people rejoiced together. Moreover, it was a joyful celebration of a sad passage in the early history of their nation, when their fathers had dwelt in booths in the wilderness, and even Jehovah's sanctuary was in a tent.

From all parts of the land, and even from many foreign parts, the devout poured into the Holy City. No good Jew allowed himself to sleep in a house. Boughs full of green leaves were brought from the country, and temporary booths constructed on house-tops, and along thoroughfares, and in all the environs of the city, until Jerusalem was covered with a temporary forest. Glad ness reigned, and public and private rejoicing prevailed.

The Temple service partook of the festal air of the occasion.

Immediately after the regular morning sacrifices, every day, a priest went with a golden vessel to the fountain of Siloah, on the side of the hill on which the Temple stood, and

Temple service. drew water, which he brought through the watergate, accompanied by a gay procession and the sound of trumpets, and having mixed it with wine, poured it on the sacrifice upon the altar, amid the hallelujah shouts of the people. This probably reminded them of the supplies of water Jehovah had given to their fathers in the emergencies of the wilderness. The joyfulness of this ceremonial was so great that it passed into a common proverb: "He that never saw the rejoicing of drawing water never saw rejoicing in all his life."*

Evening service.

As a complement of the morning service, and retaining another reminiscence of the wilderness life of their ancestors, namely, the guidance by the pillar of fire through the night, there were set up, in the Court of the Women, two great golden lamp-stands, and when these were kindled they threw their light over the whole city. Then all the Temple music played, and the members of the Sanhedrim, the elders, the rulers of the synagogues, the doctors of the law, and all those who were distinguished by age, piety, and learning, danced wildly and recklessly, in the sight of the women who crowded the balconies, and the men who thronged the court; he that made himself the most ridiculous achieving the greatest success. Perhaps this addition to the ceremonials was taken from the dance of David before the Ark.

There was another peculiarity of this festival. In addition to the usual daily sacrifices, on the first day thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year, were sacrificed; the next day, twelve bullocks; the third day, eleven; and so decreasing until on the seventh day, on which seven bullocks were offered, making seventy in all. This number, the Jewish doctors taught, represented the languages of the seventy nations. of the world, and the process of diminution represented the gra dual reduction of those nations until all things should come under the reign of the Messiah.†

The legal limit of the "Feast of Tabernacles" was seven days,

Jennings in his Jewish Antiquities | R. Solomon on Numb. xix., cited quotes this from the Mishna, tit. Sweah, by Lightfoot in his Temple Service, cap. v., sect. 1. chap. xvi., sect. 1.