of heaven is at hand. They preached, 'Repent, for the kingdom of God is come,' 'Repent and believe the gospel ;' and on this text they doubtless amplified in their addresses, speaking of their Lord, what He had done, and what they had heard Him say, and declaring their belief that He was the longdesired, long-expected Christ of God.

They were also empowered to authenticate their mission by miracles. In performing these, they no doubt acted vicariously, as in later times, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth; and in the brief account of their proceedings, the curious circumstance transpires, that they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.' Jesus never did this; and as anointing the sick with oil was a common practice among the Jews, it must have helped to give a kind of secondary aspect to their proceedings. Whether they acted thus from a modest reluctance to seem to emulate their Master in this respect, or whether defective faith rendered such help necessary to themselves, cannot be determined.

Jesus sent them not forth uninstructed in the course they were to take, and the duties they had to discharge. They were to limit their movements to the Jewish districts, not going among the Samaritans or the Gentiles; for it was necessary that this gospel of the kingdom should be first of all fully preached to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He taught them that they were to go forth to the discharge of their office without any anxious care for the future. They were going forth on God's work, and they might rely upon it that God would provide for all their wants; and in every place to which they came, they were to accept the first hospitality that offered, without seeking better, or moving from house to house. And having thus attached themselves to one household, that would become the centre of operations to them. They were not to expect all things to go smoothly. Much persecution and many trials awaited them; and very often the word they taught would seem a word of strife and division in families. But their mission and their safety were in God's keeping. He would protect them; He would vindicate their cause; and whatever came

to pass, they had this comfort: 'Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father, which is in heaven.'

How long they were away, we know not. But when they returned, they seem to have been satisfied with their success, or with the attention with which their message had been heard, while they gratefully acknowledged that, in following their Lord's instructions, they had lacked nothing.

In the meantime, by his own acts and preachings, and by theirs, the fame of Jesus was made familiar to all wide Galilee; and his proceedings and claims became the general theme of conversation. There was an extraordinary variety of opinions concerning Him. His conduct was so different from that which the nation generally had associated with the idea of the Messiah, that there were not many as yet who fully recognised Him in that character. Some thought He might be John the Baptist raised from the dead; for John had been ere this put to death by Herod. Others deemed that He might be Elias, or one of the old prophets come as a further harbinger of the Messiah; and the general disposition, among those well informed as to John's preaching and mission, was to place Him above John, and next to the Messiah, but not to regard Him as himself the Messiah. This indeed is the opinion which we have supposed John himself to have been for a moment inclined to entertain, when he sent his disciples to question Jesus.

All these opinions were discussed at court, for Jesus was now too conspicuous to be overlooked there. Herod himself said, 'John have I beheaded; but who is this of whom I hear such things?'-and he expressed a wish to see Him.

John had met his end in this manner :-We have seen that it was not Herod's intention to put him to death, partly because he was afraid to do so. But his more wicked and less scrupulous wife thirsted for the prophet's blood, not only out of revenge, but as a measure of prudence and security to herself. The mere fact that he was there as a prisoner, must ever keep alive in the minds of the people, and that of the king himself,

for what cause he was there-for declaring the marriage between Herod and Herodias unlawful and void; and who could say but that at any moment of discontent or remorse, or to gratify the people, with whom the marriage was unpopular and scandalous, the king might send her away from him? She had tried her influence upon Herod often enough, to know that it was useless to attempt to gain his consent to this murder in any direct way; and she therefore laid a deep plot to extort that consent unwillingly from him.

It was his birth-day, which was celebrated with high festivities

at court.

The Jews generally disliked the celebration of birthdays; and this was one of the heathen customs which the Herodian family had adopted from the Romans. On the present occasion, Herod gave a great 'supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates;' and before it closed, a fair young girl, to whom Herod was greatly attached, was introduced, and

commenced one of those solo dances for which the East has long been celebrated. That fair child was Salome, the daughter of Herodias by her former husband. With such marvellous grace and thrilling effect did she perform this dance, that Herod, already warm with wine, became excited, and in the fervour of his enthusiasm vowed that she should have whatever she asked, even to the half of his kingdom. Little could he imagine what this child had been tutored by her wicked mother to ask; and he was shocked and grieved when, instead of some costly bauble, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. The sternest man there must have shuddered to hear from those beautiful young lips the bloodthirsty request, so atrociously specific: Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.' John is not only to lose his head, but the bleeding trophy is to be brought to her—it is to be brought to her there, that there may be no evasion--that the high lords, who have, heard the vow, may witness its fulfilment. Then she tells how it is to be brought. Not in any careless way, not held by the hair, not in a napkin, but in a dish; so that she—that young girl--may receive it into her own hands, and take it whither she pleased, without danger of soiling her rich dress with a prophet's blood. This is frightful. It was done, nevertheless. His oath having been given, false pride prevented Herod from revoking it, notwithstanding his regret, and notwithstanding he must have felt that the infraction of such an oath was a far less crime than its fulfilment, and although he must have seen very well to whose diabolical machinations this entanglement was owing. A man was sent to behead John in his prison; and presently the head was brought to the young princess, who doubtless received it with becoming grace, and bore it off daintily to her mother. That the girl could go through all this, however well tutored, seems to show that Salome was indeed a true daughter of Herodias. How she received this precious gift we are not told; but there is an old tradition, that she drew forth the still warm tongue that had rebuked her crimes, and vengefully transfixed it with her bodkin.

Thirty-seventh Week-Third Day.

THE CRISIS.

MATT. XIV. 13–36; MARK VI. 30–56; LUKE IX. 10–17; JOHN V1.

THE excitement among the people concerning Jesus was very high when the apostles returned to Capernaum; and it was so much increased by their reappearance, that it was impossible for them to obtain in the city the rest and repose which were greatly needed. Mark says, "There were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.' It was perhaps expected that, being now joined by his chief disciples, Jesus would no longer hesitate to declare himself the Messiah -such a Messiah as they wanted. The passover was at hand, when they were all going to Jerusalem ; and they seem to have calculated that, availing himself of the occasion, He would place himself at their head as king, and lead on the pilgrim host, increasing as it went, to the holy city, to expel the Romans and take possession of David's throne.

Seeing that no rest was to be had in the city, Jesus proposed to seek it at some quiet spot in the wilderness. It is doubted whether this was on the other side of the lake, or on the same side, across a bay. Jesus went by water; and the fact that the crowd was able in a short time, and without apparent obstruction, to reach the same place by land, is in favour of the latter conclusion; as the upper Jordan (which in the other case must have been crossed by them) is, as well as the lower, in flood, and unfordable, at and about the time of the passover.

Finding his retreat thus intruded upon by the multitude, Jesus no longer avoided them, but proceeded to preach to them, and to heal such among them as were diseased. Thus the hours passed, and it grew towards evening, when the want of needful food for this multitude became obvious and pressing. They had not taken any since they left home; and in their haste and excitement they had not brought any with them.