you a Samaritan: are we not doing a "handsome" thing to restrain ourselves and go no further than to say "you have a demon?" Jesus calmly replied, "I have not a demon. I honor my Father and you dishonor me. And I seek not my glory. There is one who seeks it and judges." The mention of God's His reply. judgment arouses his compassions, and he says to them, "I solemnly assure you that if any one shall keep my word he shall not see death through the ages." The Jews replied, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, 'If a man keep my word he shall not taste of death through the ages.' Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom do you make yourself?" This was pressing him to declare his exact position toward God and toward Abraham,-to reveal himself wholly in all his claims. He simply answers that if he glorified himself his glory would be nothing; that his Father would bring all his glory to light, and that that Father was the God whom they professed to adore. He thus claimed to be the Son of God in an exclusive sense. He adds, "And you have not known Him [although you call Him your God], but I know Him, and if I should say I know IIim not, I should be a liar like to you; but I know Him, and I keep Ilis word." He presents this as if he felt that they were urging him to deny his own consciousness, to declare that he was not what he felt himself to be, one with God; to assume a lower position would be to violate his own nature, to falsify his convictions, and to deny the truth of God. In regard to Abraham, however, he said, "Abraham, your father [as you claim], exulted that he saw my day, and he saw it and was glad.'

AM."

This was an astounding assertion. They said with sarcasm, "You have not fifty years yet, and has Abraham seen you?" Jesus replied most loftily, as if from some far-off eternity, most solemnly declare to you that before Abraham was born 1 If this be not the senseless assertion which Jesus before the Jews took it to be, it is a declaration of the consciousness which Jesus felt of his being in existence before time began, before measurements of duration had been discovered, in eternity, eternally coexisting with the Being whom he calls his Father, and whom we all suppose to be God.

Abraham.

The Jews took up stones to cast at him, but he somehow hid himself from the frantic multitude and went out of the Temple.

CHAPTER II.

THE FEAST OF DEDICATION.

Perhaps somewhere near Jeri

cho. Luke x.

WHERE Jesus went, and how long he stayed in any place, are questions the answers to which escape our closest investigations. He travelled and taught. This is nearly all we can learn. There are certain incidents recorded by his biographers which seem to associate themselves with this portion of his history, and, even if we have missed their precise chronology, may as well be introduced here. They seem to show that Jesus was en route towards Jerusalem to attend for the third time the Feast of the Dedication, a festival which celebrated the renewal of the Temple service under the Maccabees.

The lawyer's

question.

On one occasion a lawyer stood up, with the intent, if possible, to entrap Jesus in his sayings. He put this question to Jesus: "Teacher, by doing what shall I inherit perpetual life?" To this Jesus returns two questions, important in themselves, and increasing their importance by their relation to each other. Probably pointing to the phylactery of his questioner's robe, on which, as a lawyer, he bore the inscription of that passage of Scripture (Deut. vi. 5) which the Jews were accustomed to repeat daily, he said, "What is written in the law?" His next question was, "How readest thou?" He calls his attention to the fact that a man must first know the words of the record, and that then the mood in which he examines them will have influence on his judgment. So, before making answer, Jesus asked the lawyer what response he had been able to get for himself out of the law. His reply was, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said, "You have answered rightly. Do this and you shall live."

Perhaps this touched him as an intimation that his life had

been in fault, and therefore he could not understand the profound spiritual subjects which he had brought forward for discourse. He may have felt piqued, and to make return gave Jesus what perhaps he intended to be a quiet touch of sarcasm by the question, "And who is my neighbor?" As if he had said that he had kept the law, unless Jesus gave to the term neighbor perhaps a meaning not altogether accepted among his people, thus covertly seeking to rebuke him for his too great laxity in mingling with the hated Samaritan race.

Parable of the

Good Samaritan.

Jesus replied in the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan. "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who both stripped and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By a contingency a certain priest was going down that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and, seeing him, was moved with compassion, and coming to him he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two denarii,* and gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take

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GAISER

SILVER

PENNY.

PONT

care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.'

Then Jesus submitted to the lawyer the question, "Which of these three seems to thee to have been neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" And he replied, "He who showed mercy on him." Jesus said, "Go, and do thou likewise."

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was proverbially perilous

* To English readers of this parable | man should humanely take up a poor the generosity of the Samaritan in leaving two pennies with the landlord seems to be a small thing. But let us recollect that each denarius represented a day's labor. It would surely not be considered a small thing if a New York laboring

fellow who had been maimed, and leave ten dollars to meet his expenses. Perhaps ten dollars now in New York would be a fair representative of two denarii in Palestine in the days of Jesus. It was a liberal provision.

From Jerusalem

to Jericho.

by reason of being the resort of highwaymen. Of this Josephus (B. J., iv. 8, 3) informs us. The priests and Levites who lived in Jericho and officiated in Jerusalem were accustomed to take the longer and safer road by way of Bethlehem, but on this occasion they had chosen the shorter route. Their guilt is increased by the fact that they examined the condition of the wounded man and found it to be so very desperate, and yet their selfish love of safety drowned the voice of conscience and humanity in their hearts. If the lawyer thought it was not the correct and regular thing for a Jew to show mercy to a Samaritan, Jesus showed him the beautiful picture of a Samaritan putting his own life in peril to save a man whom he considered a heretic, and whom he knew to be his national enemy.

A lesson of wide humanity.

If the wounded man, however, was not a Jew,-and Jesus does not say he was,—then the Samaritan is represented as having the widest possible humanity. He had met a man who was a stranger. He did not have even the pleasure which comes from helping an enemy, which is always an intense personal gratification of one's own nobleness. The person before him presented only two claims to his attention and his kindness, namely, he was a man, and in trouble. Here was the very widest humanity. But we know that the helper was a Samaritan, and by introducing this feature into the picture Jesus taught that it is possible to have humanity with heterodoxy, and to have orthodoxy without humanity; and he also teaches that if a man's orthodoxy do not beget humanity it is barrenly worthless; that humanity is superior to orthodoxy, and inhumanity is worse than heterodoxy.

The beauty of this parable in an aesthetical view, its graphicness, its fulness, its wideness and completeness of action, its genuine humaneness, are all heightened by the fact that this great Teacher, who selected the Samaritan to be the model of neighborly behavior, had himself been recently insulted and rejected by the Samaritans.

It would seem to have been on this journey to the Feast of Dedication that Jesus and his followers went to the little neighboring village of Bethany, to meet a household consisting of three perBons, two sisters and a younger brother, of whom we shall have nore to say hereafter. This family seems to have attracted and

held the friendship of Jesus. The sisters were named Martha and Mary, the former probably being the elder and the keeper of the house. Their brother was named Lazarus. Bethany. Mary When, or how often previously, or whether ever before, Jesus had been in this house, we have no means of knowing positively; but it would seem from the air of the narrative that Jesus had had some previous intercourse with this interesting domestic circle.

and Martha, Luke X.

Jesus had come into the house tired with travel and preaching. Ilis reception by the sisters shows the difference in their temperaments. Mary sat at his feet, listening lovingly to his words.

Mary was receptive. But Martha went bustling about the house, preparing many things, intent upon giving Jesus something of a festal reception as he came from his tiresome journey. At last her industry passed over into worry. She became cumbered about much serving. And then she became a little fretful. And she went from the kitchen to the sitting-room and broke in upon the party with the half-playful, half-petulant speech addressed to Mary through Jesus, Dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me!" It did not occur to Mary that much preparation would be needed. and she loved Jesus so that she went straight into the sitting room and