e§31k§i3k t, liilTir v I*;** |»U : ¦:¦" - -- -: .--¦¦:.'. ¦- ¦'- -¦'•-, ¦-¦¦¦ ' "-'¦ :^» YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIBRARY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL This Child is set up for the Fall and Resurrection of Many in Israel." THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST EMBRACING THE ENTIRE GOSPEL NARRATIVE Embodying the Teachings and the Miracles of Our Saviour TOGETHER WITH THE HISTORY OF Hi$ Foundations the Christian Church BY REV WALTER ELLIOTT , . i Of the Paulist Fathers THIRTEENTH THOUSAND New York THE C£1JLLIM£US PRESS fltbil obstat: REV. REMY LAFORT, S.T.t,., Censor Deputatus. ITmprlmatur: 4* MICHAEL AUGUSTINUS, Archiepiscopus Neo-Ebor, r? Augusti, igor. Copyright, 1901, by "The Missionary Society of St. Padi. the Apostle in the State of New York." Pmnteo at the Columbus Preu, 120 West 60th St. / PREFACE. THIS work is a contribution to the devotional study of our Redeemer's teaching and ex ample. It engaged the author's best thoughts and endeavors during several years. It is hoped that it may help the Catholic reader to a more vivid appreciation of our Lord's life and doctrine ; its mam purpose is to move hearts to love Him fer vently. Perhaps He may bestow a blessing upon •Shis humble offering ; for though in itself of little enough value, yet it is given with all the love of which the author is capable. And he trusts that this Life has some special features which will recommend it. One of these is that it contains the entire Gospel history, omitting only strictly verbal repetitions. The reader will thus have the four-fold narrative of the inspired authors blended together into the continuous account of our Saviour's career from first to last, together with such passages from the other books of the New Testament as furnish additional testimony. This portion of the work is, for the most part, ruled off separately from the text ; and the writer hopes that it will always be read, piece by piece, and very carefully, as a preliminary to each chap ter. To help the reader to understand and appre- ii PREFACE. ciate this divine narrative has been the author's only purpose. He has closely followed the most generally used Catholic versions, and on disputed points has adhered to the more commonly accepted views. Another advantage is in the use made of the modern art of pictorial illustration. The book is full of pictures, so numerous and so carefully se lected as to make a Life of Christ by themselves. The publishers have been aided in this by skilful artists,* and certainly have reproduced those contri butions of Christian art most helpful to a devout realization of our Redeemer's mission. This book is intended to be the religious photographic album of the Catholic household. It is hardly necessary to add that the Life, besides giving our Saviour's history, affirms and briefly proves the doctrines He taught and deliver ed to His Church, whose divine authority, whose sacraments, and whose incorporation into a living body are all fully explained. Of course there is not, nor could there be, any claim to originality in this work. Readers acquaint ed with Le Camus's beautiful Vie de Jhus will, perhaps, notice the influence of the earlier chapters of that inspiring writer. The author acknowledges his debt to him, and also to other Catholic bio* graphers of our Lord. * Especially by Rev. P. J. McCorry, C.S.P., to whose artistic still and taste we are mainly indebted for the illustrations. COlsTTEasPr©. INTRODUCTION. OUR SAVIOUR'S PEOPLE AND COUNTRY. PAGE Palestine and the Children of Israel, i Jerusalem and Judea, 4 The Perea and the Transjordan 8 Samaria, 9 Galilee 10 The Pharisees and Sadducees,) . . . . ' . . .12 The Synagogues and the Sanhedrin 14 The Roman Power in Palestine 15 The Hope of Israel 18 The Writings which tell of Jesus, 19 BOOK I. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF JESUS. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Miraculous Conception of John the Baptist, 41 II. The Birth and Circumcision of John — The Can ticle of Zachary, III. The Divine Origin of Jesus Christ, IV. The Descent of Jesus according to the Flesh, V. Mary of Nazareth and Joseph her espoused Husband, VI. The Son of God becomes Man, . VII. Mary's Visit to Elizabeth— The Magnificat, VIII. The Marriage of Mary and Joseph, IX. Jesus is born at Bethlehem, X. The Child Jesus is Circumcised, . XI. The Adoration of the Magi, XII. The Child Jesus is Presented in the Temple Simeon, and Anna the Prophetess, . XIII. The Flight into Egypt— The Slaughter of the Innocents — The Return to Nazareth, XIV. The Childhood of Jesus, .... XV. The Child Jesus among the Doctors of the Law, 107 XVI. The Hidden Life at Nazareth 113 45 48 5154 57626773 80 9196 102 iv CONTENTS. BOOK II. THE PUBLIC LIFE OF JESUS. CHAPTER PAGE I. John the Baptist prepares the Way for Jesus, . 121 II. The Baptism of Jesus— " Thou art My Beloved Son ! " 126 III. The Preparation in the Desert 133 IV. The Temptation 139 V. John the Baptist and the Chief Priests—" Be hold the Lamb of God !" - . . . .145 VI. Jesus chooses Disciples 151 VII. The Wedding at Cana, 156 VIII. Jesus returns to Jerusalem and Expels the Traf fickers from the Temple — He proclaims His Authority, 161 IX. Jesus begins to Teach in Jerusalem — The Inter view with Nicodemus, 166 X. Teaching in the Country-places — Final Witness of John 173 XI. The Imprisonment of John the Baptist — Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, .... 175 XII. The Harvest and the Reapers 182 XIII. The Return to Galilee— The Healing of the Ruler's Son 184 XIV. At Nazareth 186 XV. .Capharnaum — "I will make you Fishers of Men," 191 XVI. Vanquishing an unclean Spirit — Healing Si mon's Wife's Mother — All Galilee is Evan gelized, 193 XVII. Teaching from Peter's Barque — The Miraculous Draught of Fishes 202 XVIII. The Cleansing of a Leper, 205 XIX. Jesus returns to Capharnaum— Cure of the Paralytic, and the consequent Dispute with the Pharisees, 208 XX. Matthew the Publican— The Time for Fasting and the Time for Feasting 212 XXI. The Woman Cured of an Issue of Blood— The Raising to Life of the Daughter of Jairus, . 217 CONTENTS. v CHAPTER PAGE XXII. The final Calling of the Twelve Apostles, . . 223 XXIII. The Sermon on the Mount, . . . 230-252 XXIV. Healing the Centurion's Servant— The Two Blind Men — The Dumb Devil, .... 253 XXV. The Miracle at the Probatic Pool— Sabbath- breaking — Jesus asserts His Divinity, . . 256 XXVI. Plucking the Ears of Wheat on the Sabbath- Healing the Man with the Withered Hand — Conspiracy between the Pharisees and Hero dians, 264 XXVII. The great Miracle of Nairn 269 XXVIII. The Messengers of St. John the Baptist, . . 272 XXIX. The Magdalen at the Banquet 276 XXX. At Nazareth again 281 XXXI. Evangelizing Galilee — The Devout Women who ministered to Jesus, 283 XXXII. The sending forth of the Twelve Apostles— The Apostolic Virtues . 287 XXXIII. The Opposition of the Pharisees— The Blind and Dumb Devil — Christ and Beelzebub — " Blessed is the Womb that bore Thee "—The Mother of Jesus and His Brethren, . . . 294 XXXIV. Teaching by Parables— The Sower— The Candle — The Mustard-seed — The Leaven — The Cockle —The Hidden Treasure— The Pearl of Great Price — The Net — New Things and Old, . . 303 XXXV. The Stilling of the Tempest — The Legion of Devils and the Herd of Swine, . . . 314 XXXVI. The Imprisonment of John the Baptist — His Martyrdom 319 XXXVII. Jesus Multiplies the Loaves and Fishes— He Walks upon the Water, 324 XXXVIII. The Bread of Life, 33 1 XXXIX. Many Disciples go back from Jesus on account of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, . . . 339 XL. Eating with Unwashed Hands — Inward and Outward Defilement 342 XLI. The Syro-Phoenician Woman 346 XLH. In the Decapolis— Healing the Deaf and Dumb Man — Second Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, 349 ri CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE XLIII. The Pharisees again Demand a Sign in the Heavens — " Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees " — The Blind Man at Bethsaida, . 352 XLIV. "Thou art Peter," 356 XLV. Jesus Foretells His Death, 361 XLVI. The Transfiguration, 364 XL VII. The Lunatic Boy, 369 XLVIII. The Passion again Foretold — Jesus and the Pay ment of the Tax — The Dispute about Prece dence, 372 XLIX. The Sin of Scandal— The Guardian Angels— The Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, . 378 L. Fraternal Correction — "If He will not hear the Church "—The Wicked Servant, . . .382 LI. Farewell to Galilee — " Woe to thee, Corozain ! " 385 LIL The Journey from Galilee to Jerusalem — "Fire from Heaven " — " The Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head" — "Let the Dead bury their Dead " — " Looking Back, " . . . 390 LIII. Jesus in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles — He Teaches His Divine Mission, . . . 393 LIV. Jesus offers the Waters of Life— The Attempt to Apprehend Him in the Temple, . . . 397 LV. The Woman taken in Adultery, . . . 401 LVI. Jesus the Light of the World, .... 405 LVII. "You shall Die in your Sins" — Jesus Teaches true Freedom — The Secret of Life — "Before Abraham was Made, I Am," .... 407 LVIII. The Man born Blind 4I5 LIX. Contention with the Pharisees about the Restor ation to Sight of the Man born Blind, . . 417 LX. The Shepherd and the Sheep, .... 420 LXI. "lam the Good Shepherd," .... 425 LXII. The Good Samaritan 428 LXIII. Mary and Martha 4,5- LXIV. Jesus Teaches His Disciples how to Pray — The Lord's Prayer, ....... aic LXV. The Watchful Servants— The Thief in the Night, 444 LXVI. Jesus at the Feast of the Dedication of the Tem ple—He again Teaches that He is God, . . 447 LXVn. Hypocrisy — " Woe to you Pharisees ! " . . 452 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER PAGE LXVIII. " Who hath appointed Me Judge or Divider over you ? ' ' — Covetousness 458 LXIX. Healing the Infirm Woman on the Sabbath Day —The Dropsical Man, ..... 460 LXX. First Places at Table— The Great Supper: " Compel them to Come In," .... 461 LXXI. The Chosen Few— The Slaughter of the Gali leans and the Falling of the Tower of Siloe, . 464 LXXII. " Why Cumbereth it the Ground ?" . . . 468 LXXIII. " This Man began to Build and was not able to Finish," 469 LXXIV. Jesus is Warned against Herod, .... 472 LXXV. Lessons of Mercy — The lost Groat — The Prodi gal Son 473 LXXVE. The Unjust Steward, 477 LXXVII. Dives and Lazarus 481 LXXVni. Lessons in Humility — The Pharisee and the Publican, 484 LXXIX. The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead, . . 486 LXXX. " It is expedient that one Man should Die for the People," 492 LXXXI. The Unjust Judge who heard the Widow's Prayer, 495 LXXXII. The Sending of the Seventy-two Disciples, . 497 LXXXIII. "Where are the Nine?" 501 LXXXIV. The Laborers hired at the Eleventh Hour, . 502 LXXXV. Riches and Poverty, and Christian Perfection, . 506 LXXXVI. The Hundred-fold in this Life and Life Ever lasting Hereafter 509 LXXXVII. The Sacrament of Matrimony 511 LXXXVIII. Christian Virginity and Celibacy— Jesus and Little Children, 517 BOOK III. THE PASSION AND DEATH OF JESUS. I. " Behold we go up to Jerusalem," II. The Ambition of the Sons of Zebedee, III. The Blind Man at the Gate of Jericho, IV. Zacheus the Publican, V. The Parable of the Ten Pounds, 52352653i 534537 i CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE VI. "Six Days before the Passover," . . . 54° VII. Mary Magdalen anoints Jesus, .... 542 VIII. The Procession of Palms, 547 IX. Christ Weeps over Jerusalem 553 X. Jesus and the Barren Fig-tree, .... 556 XI. "Unless the Grain of Wheat falling into the Ground shall die " — The Voice from Heaven : "That you may be the Children of Light," . 558 XII. The Temple again Purged of Buyers and Sel lers — "By what Authority dost thou these things?" 561 XIII. The Parable of the Two Sons 565 XIV. The Parables of the Wicked Husbandmen and of the King's Supper, 566 XV. The Relation of Church and State, . . .569 XVI. "They shall neither Marry nor be Married," . 571 XVII. The Great Commandment— "What think you of Christ?" 575 XVIII. " The Scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the Chair of Moses " — "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees" — The Widow's Mite, . . . 578 XIX. The Unbelief of the Pharisees— The Union of the Messias with His Eternal Father, . . 585 XX. The Terrible Prophecy of the Destruction of the City and the End of the World, . . .588 XXI. The Prophecy of the End further enforced and enlarged, . . 591 XXII. Personal Application of the Vision of Judgment, 596 XXIII. The Wise and Foolish Virgins— Faithful and Slothful Servants, . . 598 XXIV. The Last Judgment, . . . . 601 XXV. Jesus prepares for his Last Supper, and the Chief Priests make a Bargain with Judas, . 603 XXVI. Jesus Celebrates the Jewish Passover, . . 607 XXVII. Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet, . . . 610 XXVIII. "Is it I, Lord?" . . ... 613 XXIX. The Beginning of the Last Discourse — The De nial of Peter foretold— Strife for Pre-eminence, 617 XXX. The Last Discourse continued : " I have Prayed for Thee"— Second Prediction of Peter's De nial— The Incident of the Two Swords, . .621 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX PAGE XXXI. The Last Discourse continued : " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," . . .623 XXXII. The Last Discourse continued : Jesus Dis courses of the Holy Spirit— How the Father and the Son and the Spirit dwell in the Church and in the Soul of each Christian, . 625 XXXIII. The Holy Eucharist, 630 XXXIV. Jesus resumes His Discourse : Union with Him is the Condition of all Spiritual Life— The Identity of Joy and Love and Obedience— " Love one Another, as I have Loved You " — The Witness of the Spirit, . . . .633 XXXV. The Last Discourse is concluded : Jesus Fore tells Persecution — Renewed Promise of the Holy Ghost — Sorrow shall be turned into Joy, 637 XXXVI. Jesus Prays for His Church 641 XXXVII. Jesus begins His Passion 645 XXXVIII. The Agony in the Garden, 648 XXXIX. Jesus is Betrayed with a Kiss 656 XL. The Resistance of the Apostles and their Flight, 658 XLI. Jesus is led before Annas and Caiphas — The De nial of Peter, 660 XLII. The First Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin— Third Denial of Peter, 664 XLIII. The Terrible Night of Holy Thursday, . . 669 XLIV. Jesus before the Sanhedrin, .... 670 XLV. The Despair of Judas and his Suicide, . . 672 XLVI. Jesus before Pilate 674 XL VII. "Art Thou King of the Jews?" . . .677 XLVIII. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, . . . .680 XLIX. ' ' Barabbas or Jesus ? ' '—Pilate's Wife's Dream— " Crucify Him ! " 684 L. Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns — " Behold the Man ! " 688 LI- Pilate's final Struggle — The Death-sentence, . 691 LII. The Way of the Cross 694 LIH. The Crucifixion— The Inscription — "Father, Forgive Them ! " 698 LTV. The Triumph of the Conspirators— The Good Thief—" Woman, behold thy Son ! " . .702 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE LV. The Death of Jesus, ...... 708 LVI. After the Crucifixion 713 LVII. The Burial of Jesus, 717 BOOK IV. THE RESURRECTION. I. The Resurrection — The Empty Sepulchre, . 723 II. The Apparition of Jesus to Mary Magdalen, . 729 III. The Apparition of Jesus to the Holy Women — How the Chief Priests explained the Resur rection, . 73* IV. Jesus Appears to Peter ; and to Two Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, ..... 736 V. "Whose Sins you shall Forgive, they are For given Them " — The Profession of Faith by Thomas 733 VI. Jesus Appears to Seven Apostles at the Sea of Tiberias — The Primacy of Peter, . . . 743 VII. Jesus Appears to a great Multitude on a Moun tain in Galilee — Apparition to St. James — The Commission of the Teaching Church, . . 751 VIII. Jesus Ascends into Heaven 754 IX. The Election of Matthias— The Descent of the Holy Ghost— The First Preaching of the Apostles, 760 EPILOGUE. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD. "Ye shall be as Gods," j " Lo, this is our God : We have waited for Him ! " . . vii " My Lord and my God ! " x "I am the Light of the World," xiv " I know Mine and Mine know Me," xbs INTRODUCTION. Our Saviour's People and Country. PALESTINE AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Palestine, primi tively known as Cha- naan, then Israel and Judea, is for the most part an extended and picturesque valley considerably elevated above sea level. Em bosomed between two i mountain chains, it is traversed from end to end by a single water-course, the far-famed river Jordan, which, rising at the foot of Mount Hermon, flows directly south, broad ening in its northerly portion into the charm ing Lake of Genesareth (otherwise called the Sea of Tiberias), and ending in the bitter waters of the Dead Sea. Between these two lakes the river flows in many turns, over shifting sands and among reeds and weeds, as if sadly conscious of bearing its bright waters to the cauldron of death, falling into the Dead Sea as if it were its grave. It is in reality the grave of Sodom and Gomorrha, once flourishing cities whose destruction seems still to be commemorated by 2 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. bubbles of poisonous gas rising to the surface like the belchings of the volcanic giant after his/ feast. Chosen from the beginning as the scene of God's sojourn among men, Palestine is the meeting-point of the three grand divisions of the ancient world, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is the geographical centre, as it was destined to become the religious heart of ancient civilization. Upon the banks of its holy river and its lakes, and over its plains and hill sides, dwelt in our Saviour's time a little nation highly favored by God. It was indeed broken and conquered, but it still stood erect clasping to its bosom the sacred deposit of divine truth confided to its ancestors many ages before. At the coming of Christ Israel was reduced to a population of not more than three or four millions, its former military glory, together with political independence, departed for ever. Yet in the whole wide world it alone preserved the knowledge of the true God, one, infinite, eternal, the Creator and Judge of men. It was, withal, a race of hard heart and stiff neck, but yet the only one which had the law of God. This was written upon the pages of the national constitution and graven upon the living tablets of the people's hearts. Among all other nations the idea of God was almost wholly effaced from men's souls, or rather every forceful man was worshipped as God, every portentous element of nature, ever}' good and evil passion. Outside of Palestine everything was God except the true God. This elect race was descended from Abraham the patriarch through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, or Israel. To each of these three, during the adventurous wanderings which made up their lives, God had repeatedly promised this land as the peculiar possession of their posterity. They, descendants of PALESTINE AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. the twelve sons of Jacob, were led to it by their great lawgiver, Moses, after suffering a very long cap tivity in Egypt. During their journey across the desert of Arabia the children of Israel were favored by the divine interposition in most miraculous ways, until they were securely settled in this land of promise. It was " a land flowing with milk and honey," but its fruitfulness was conditioned upon the people's fidelity to God, for naturally it is subject to frequent visita tions of drought. While the Israelites were true to God the soil was fruitful, and when they turned to false gods the hot wind of the desert blasted their fields and pastures. It was the divine purpose to com pel the Jews to keep alive the fire of His true worship as in a carefully guarded sanctuary, until in the fulness of time it should be brought forth to illumine the whole world. The location was well chosen : on one side was the sea-coast almost entirely without good harbors, and on the other frontiers were bleak deserts or rugged mountains. The Israelites could easily hold their own against the neighbor ing pagan nations, and ever did so except when God delivered them into the hands of their enemies in punishment of their Sins. This little family of the Lord by His special providence in their location, their warlike ardor, the racial and social rules of the law of Moses, and the constant interference of His Strong right arm, preserved the wells of moses. 4 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. their strikingly peculiar traits of character and per petuated their ancestral traditions of the true religion. The twelve tribes of Israel had at one era of their history become a powerful nation, whose golden age was under the kingship of David and his son Solomon; Afterwards it was broken into two separate and usually antagonistic kingdoms : that of Juda, embracing the tribe of that name and the tribe of Benjamin, whose capital was Jerusalem ; and that of Israel, composed of the other ten tribes. Many most important political changes afterwards took place, chief among them the long captivity of nearly the entire people in Babylon, the domination of Alexander the Great and his suc cessors, and the wars of independence under the Macha^ bees. Rome had conquered the country some sixty years prior to the birth of Christ, at which date it was a province of the vast empire ruled by Caesar Augustus. It was divided into four parts : Jerusalem was the seat of government for the whole province, with Judea for its immediate jurisdiction; Samaria, lying north of Judea, was another legal division ; yet further north was Galilee ; the nearer region beyond the Jordan was called the Perea. JERUSALEM AND JUDEA. Jerusalem, otherwise called Sion (perhaps the Salem of Melchisedech) , was the centre of the Jewish religion. Wherever scattered, the hearts of the people yearned for Sion, the City of God, the site of His holy Temple. Happy the day when the weary pilgrim entered its gate to offer his prayers at the one spot on the whole earth in which God had commanded sacrifice to be offered to His sovereign majesty, and where He most lovingly listened to the prayers of His people — happier still the Jew who always dwelt in the JERUSALEM AND JUDEA. 5 sacred atmosphere of the Holy City. Every earnest Israelite trusted most firmly that this city was in God's own time, now close at hand, to fulfil the forebodings of the Roman soothsayers and conquer the world. Few of them, however, were willing to believe that this conquest would not be one of violence, but rather (according to the meaning of the city's name, the City of Peace) a moral and religious revolution as meek as it would be irresistible. The city was divided into three parts, or rather three hills : to the west and south Mount Sion ; to the east Mount Moriah, crowned by the Temple ; and the north ern and most inhabited section, called Acra. The place was strongly fortified, being surrounded by frowning walls overlooking, in most parts, deep ravines, and garnished with beetling towers. At the time of Christ there were one hundred and fifty thousand resi dent's, a population enormously increased at various seasons by the great throngs of Jewish pilgrims from all over the world, drawn by the festivals of their religion. Although its ancient glory had departed, Jerusalem was a great and splendid city. Among its gorgeous palaces was that of King Herod the Great, standing on the northern slope of Mount Sion and adorned with a profusion of silver and gold and costly marbles. At the northern border was the magnificent tower called Antonia, once the abode of the heroic Machabees. It was now the fortress of the Roman garrison and dominated the whole city. THE G4TE OP THE HOLY CITY. LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. LAMPS IN THE TEMPLE, In it the governor of the coun try was like the prison physi cian holding the pulse of the criminal under torture and watching the limits of his en durance. But palaces and for tresses and governors and sol diers could not take from Jeru salem its true character : it was the Holy City. Everything gave place to religion, not only i in the general seeming of things but in the souls of the citizens and the multitudes of pilgrims. Jerusalem was crowned by the Temple of Jehovah, and Jehovah was uppermost in the thoughts and affections of the people, however wildly and even erroneously directed. Although the people of Israel were politically enslaved, yet experience had shown even the resistless Romans how dan gerous it was to tamper with their faith. An insult to the house of God or to the venerable rites of His worship transformed them into a nation of martyrs. The Temple — to the Jews the point of union between earth and heaven — was, says Josephus, of such dazzling beauty that from a distance it looked like a mass of snow sparkling in the sunlight. It was built of marble, and its interior was overlaid with plates of gold. The exterior was enclosed by a majestic colonnade forming the outer court, that of the Gentile converts ; a railing bearing Latin and Greek inscriptions barred their en trance to a second and more elevated court, in which worshipped the children of Abraham, the women being railed off from the more honorable place of the men. JERUSALEM AND JUDEA. 7 Within this again, and raised still higher, was a court reserved exclusively for the priests and Levites, and sacred to the celebration of the sacrifices. Finally, there was the very sanctuary of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, quite hidden by the sacred veil, and whose precincts were trodden by the High-Priest alone. To the north and east of the capital were many memorials of Israel's glory ; Jericho, which had fallen at the sound of the Levites' trumpets, now embowered in palm-trees and roses ; many ancient battle-fields of the long Philistine wars — the scenes of Samson's vic tories, of David's conquest of Goliath, of the call of the father of the Machabees to the last successful war of liberation, and the final era of Israel's national inde pendence. To the south was Bethlehem and the tomb of Rachel, and the field of Booz, in which Ruth, our Saviour's ancestress, had gleaned after the reapers and won her husband. But greater than all was Bethlehem itself. It was the city of ' David, and was foretold by Amos and other prophets as the birthplace of the promised Messias so often spoken of and saluted by the patriarchs, whose sacred ashes reposed in their rocky cells at Hebron, not far to the south ward. Upon Bethlehem the eyes of all Israel were often turned in expec tation of their Redeemer. An austere sect called Essenes lived in a kind of community life near the Dead Sea. They renounced marriage, mortified the flesh with extreme sever ity, and practised every hardship known to the ascetics. But they were, it seems, L.IU Holy of BoUa. II. Th» BolT PUrt C TO* Altv of ! B TtobnuoL E. nwaourttf T Tlnoourtof O. Tb. ((•!* Una L Th» fit* BanMftil. J. Ti.o eouf qf tlw OutfflM E.TLoEl 8 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. fatally tainted with oriental dualism, making evil a principle independent of good and identifying it with all material and physical existence ; hence their as ceticism. They differed in this from the Jewish Naza- rites, who renounced all things from the truest motives and had ever been the mainstay of orthodox Judaism. THE PEREA AND THE TRANSJORDAN. Across the Jordan, the country stretching away east and north almost to the gates of Damascus was only in part a division of the Holy Land. It was roamed over by wild and scattered tribes, forefathers of the freebooting Bedouins of our own times, who had no share in the religious convulsions which we are going to narrate. To the Jews these people were like a thorny wilderness enclosing a fruitful vine yard. Exception, however, must be made in favor of the region just east of the river lying between the Lake of Genesareth and the Dead Sea, and called the Perea. In spite of a sprinkling of pagans, its in habitants were Israelites, fervent in their observance of the law of Moses. Their country was the land of Galaad, the native land of mighty Elias the Thesbite. Through the mountain pass es of the Perea the twelve tribes had come out of the desert to the banks of the Jordan, and it had been as signed to the tribes of Reuben and Gad as their portion of Israel's heritage — a stalwart people, ever ready to change the shepherd's crook for the "adgsbf, Bedouin's lance in defence gate of Damascus. of the nation or of its God THE PEREA, TRANSJORDAN, AND SAMARIA. 9 Jehovah. There, too, in Mount Phogor, the heathen Balaam, having come out to curse the hosts of Israel, was forced by the Lord to bless them. Mount Nebo, also, was there, from whose summit Moses had re joiced in the blessed sight of the Land of Promise, and seemed still to watch over the peo ple of God and to renew the prophecy of a Saviour. SAMARIA. J((/lL West of the Jordan, and bounded north and south by Galilee and Judea, was a little country called Samaria. Its people professed the Mosaic law, but were completely severed from the Jews, who hated them worse than swine-flesh and rated them lower than the heathen. BED0UIN SHEPHERD B0Y- They were of mingled Hebrew and pagan blood, being remnants of the original Israelites of the region who escaped the Babylonian captivity, but who were ab sorbed into Assyrian colonies planted among the hills of Ephraim. The Samaritans gave back hate for hate. Masters of the best route from Galilee to Jerusalem, they molested the pilgrims on their jour neys to and from the Holy City, often forcing them to take the roundabout way beyond the Jordan. Secretly they penetrated into the Temple and pol luted the holy places ; they had a rival temple on Mount Garizim, in which ministered a schisniatical priesthood. They rejected many books of the Hebrew Scriptures, holding only to the Pentateuch, of which they claimed to have the only genuine version. Mon grel in race, they were also mixed in religion ; for if they adored Jehovah, they also honored the pagan gods — midway, as our Saviour placed them, between TOWER OF BETHEL 10 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. the Jews and the heathen, saying to His Apostles : " You shall be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem and Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth." Their chief city was Sichem, placed between Mounts Garizim and Ebal. Everywhere Samaria was sanctified by holy memories. Near Sichem, Abraham had sojourned ; close at hand was Jacob's well ; Josue had died in this vicinity, leaving to his peo ple his wonderful testament. A little to the north of Sichem was the city of Samaria, in later times called Sebaste, and rebuilt and beautified by Herod the Great; it had been in earlier ages the capital of the wicked race of Israel's kings. From their north ern border the Samaritans looked across the plain of Esdrelon and beheld the lofty cliffs of Carmel, the place of prayer for great Elias. Near their southern limit was Siloh, where the Ark of the Covenant had so long been deposited ; and near by was Bethel, where Jacob had his vision of the heavenly ladder and had wrestled with the angel. GALILEE. North of Samaria lay Galilee of the Gentiles, so called from its occupancy during many generations by pagan communities, only partially driven out by the Machabees. It embraced the ancient territory of the tribes of Issachar, Zabulon, Aser, and Nephtali.. In its interior districts the population was genuinely Hebrew, but its capital, the city of Tiberias, on the shore of Lake Genesareth, was Gentile in race and religion and Greek in life and manners; the same GALILEE. II may be said of some other scattered commnnities. But the country people and the dwellers in many of the smaller cities were full-blood descendants of Abra ham. Yet their brethren in Judea looked upon the Galileans almost as half-caste, ridiculed their barbar ous accent and their rustic manners, and at best patronized them as rough country cousins. Neverthe less, they were loyal children of Israel and a sturdy, handsome race besides. They were faithful to God and to their national traditions, brave in battle, in dustrious and thrifty in time of peace. Their land, everywhere beautiful, was mostly fertile, though the northern part was broken by wooded hills and ravines, often the refuge of bandits and sometimes of insur gents. About the Lake of Genesareth Galilee was like a beautiful garden, the climate favoring all the products of the temperate, and many of the tropical zone, amid the most radiant beauty of landscape and under a genial sky ; answering the prophetic blessings of Moses upon its early Hebrew owners, the tribes of Aser and Zabulon. The high road from the Mediter ranean to Damascus and inner Syria passed across Galilee and around the north end of Lake Genesareth, taking in Tiberias and Capharnaum. This artery of trade was of no small benefit to the Galileans in a material point of view and increased the population of their country; but it did not spoil their virtue. Nothing could spoil this strong race, in which both patriotism and religion sprang into active life from the same deep-planted root — love of the law of Moses. Every rood of ground furnished heroic memories to nourish these noble sentiments. The Plain of Esdre- lon told of Gedeon's battle with the Madianites, of Saul's victory over the Philistines, of Achab's over the Syrians ; every hill and valley and stream of Gali- 12 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. lee was sanctified as a memorial of some achieve ment of the heroes of old for God and country. The valor of the stalwart tillers of this holy soil is wit nessed not only by Josephus but by the Roman annal ist Tacitus ; a warlike quality too often led astray into foolhardy and disastrous insurrections. The Messias chose this portion of the people of Israel as his kinsfolk, for they were the best type of Israelites. They were free from the morbid scrupulos ity of the Pharisees as well as from the pagan im morality and scepticism which stained the Sadducees. They assembled every Sabbath in their synagogues and listened reverently to their Rabbis expounding the religion of their forefathers, to which they were enthusiastically devoted. Into the gates of the Holy City their dusty caravans were seen passing at every great festival time. Meanwhile their contact with the Gentiles, if it had not corrupted their manly nature and primitive morality, had yet helped them to a broader view of religious questions, and they were less fanatical in the observance of petty details of re ligious practice than the greater part of their brother Israelites. THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. Among all the people of Israel the opening of the Christian era was an epoch of reviving religious fervor and patriotic sentiment. In the family circle as well as in synagogues, on the streets and in the fields and workshops, the common topic was a mingled praise of the law of Moses and lamentation over the enslavement of the nation. Unfortunately, this move ment of minds was not well directed ; it fell under control of a powerful school of rigorists called Phari sees. These obtained a mastery over the people by THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 13 their zeal for God and country, but moved them rather to a minute observance of the external pre scriptions of the law than to a more reasonable cul tivation of its spirit They enforced a whole system of religious practices as tests of orthodoxy, many of them the mere inventions of an ingenious ritualism, others extravagant interpretations of the Mosaic forms. They assumed to be spokesmen of the Deity and final judges of all questions of the Jewish religion. They crushed out all liberty of spirit by their author ity, which was as imperious as their rulings were subtle and narrow. To them, however, and to their associates the Scribes — learned copyists and expositors of the Scriptures — the people reverently looked for guidance. They were the only leaders who believed in God and His law ; yet they who looked to them for the bread of life were too often fed with husks of ritualism. Fasts were imposed wholly without warrant in the law, postures at prayer, ablutions, religious amulets, exorbitant tithes — a whole network of painful duties binding as strictly as the Decalogue, too complex to be even easily learned and impossi ble of fulfilment. This it was that produced the condition of cen- soriousness and hypocrisy which we shall find our Saviour so often condemning. As might be expected, a vio lent revolt against this enslave ment of the religious spirit pro duced a class precisely the re verse of the Pharisees. The Sad ducees threw off not merely the innovations of the Pharisees, but SCRIBES. 14 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. even the valid observances of the Mosaic law. They scoffed, too, at the separatist principles of the Pharisees, mingled freely with pagans and fol lowed their manner of living, frequenting even their lascivious public shows. They lived an easy life ; they sought an easy way of deciding religious ques tions. They very commonly denied the immortality of the soul and the reality of a world of spirits, pro fessing to believe in the Deity only, and that in the vaguest terms possible. Politically they were the willing tools of the Romans, and of Herod the Great and his sons. They were not popular with the masses of the people, who always love and follow fervent spirits. The Sadducees were comparatively few in number, and were of the richer class, having fattened on the favor of the public authorities. THE SYNAGOGUES AND THE SANHEDRIN. Every Jewish community throughout the land had at least one synagogue, which was the usual place of public worship and Scripture exposition. Each synagogue was governed by a body of elders, a chief or ruler, a master of cere monies and a head usher, and these sent their representatives to the Sanhedrin. Of this body, formerly so powerful, the High-Priest was president. It had seven ty-one members, made up of the Chief Priests or heads of the sacerdotal classes, together with delegates from the elders of the synagogues and representatives from the college or association of the Scribes. All that survived of national dignity in Israel was represented by the a Pharisee. Sanhedrin, once in plenary possession THE ROMAN PO WER IN PALESTINE. 15 of the executive and judicial authority over the nation. By its own connivance and consent the Romans had nullified its authority and even usurped its functions. THE ROMAN POWER IN PALESTINE. About two generations before the birth of Christ the Roman general Pompey had captured Jerusalem, slain the priests, profaned the Holy of Holies, appointed his creature Hyrcanus ethnarch, and made the coun try part of the Roman province of Syria. Under Julius Csesar, Herod, surnamed the Great, a Gentile of Jewish faith, was appointed tetrarch of Judea, and by Antony and Octavius was made king, in vassalage, of course, to Rome. He is one of the most cruel monsters known to history, or even fable. Among his undoubted crimes are unheard-of oppression and massacre of the people, murder of his nearest kindred, and obtrusion of his creatures into the Sanhedrin and high-priesthood. His usurpation was perfect as far as suppression of Jewish liberty was concerned, while he in turn was most slavishly subservient to Rome. Upon his death, which happened shortly after our Saviour's birth, Rome divided his kingdom among his sons : Archelaus was made eth- 1 narch of Judea, Herod Antipas tetrarch of Galilee and the Perea, Herod Philip tetrarch of Batanea and Trachonitis — the region lying to the north of Lake Genesareth — all strictly subject to Rome. Archelaus was deposed in the tenth year of his reign and his territory annexed to the Roman lamp used in synagogue, province of Syria. Herod Philip 16 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. was generally a good ruler ; he survived our Lord's mission only a few years. Herod Antipas was cruel, impious, and licentious ; he is the Herod who mur dered John the Baptist, and to whom Pontius Pilate sent our Saviour on Good Friday. He was finally deposed by the Emperor Caligula and died in exile. These were some of the steps of the Roman colossus towards the entire extinction of Jewish independence and liberty. Another and a notable one was the imperial census taken at our Saviour's birth under Coponius, Sulpitius Quirinus being proconsul of all Syria. Two insurrections followed, and then the coun try was more closely incorporated into the empire. A temporary relief was felt under the procurators Ambivius, Anius Rufus, and Valerius, who ruled with moderation. But under their successor, Pontius Pilate, who was appointed about five years prior to our Saviour's public ministry, the Jewish people were made subject to the Roman officials in every detail of government. The Roman procurator was master of life and death, being the chief judicial as well as administrative officer in the land. He was backed by a full military equipment, the Roman legions having detachments in every strong place and a large garrison not only at the official capital, Caesa- rea on the Mediterranean, but also in Jerusalem. Roman tax-collectors were at the gates of every town, and the tribute was rigorously exacted. In the heart's core of the venerable theocracy, the Holy City itself, the foreign domination was centred, supervising and completing the political disintegration of Israel. The idolatrous Roman procurator could at his caprice interfere with the divine sacrificial worship of the Temple, and he did not fail to do so, usin°- the priesthood as an instrument for the people's sub- THE ROMAN POWER IN PALESTINE. 17 jection. The deep religious sentiment of the Tews, ingrained by racial tradition, by education, by the sincerest personal conviction, made the doctrine the worship of the Temple the supreme power of the nation, and the Romans knew well that they must secure the leaders of the priesthood ii they would maintain their supremacy. Therefore, four teen years after our Saviour was born, the Roman governor, Valerius Gratus, intruded a spurious High- Priest into the Temple in place of Annas, the legitimate one. Within four years two others were successively intruded, until, in spite of all protests of the people, one was found base enough to hold the place under Roman favor for nineteen years — Joseph Caiphas ; though, for all true Hebrews, Annas remain ed the only lawful incumbent. We shall find St. Luke naming both of them as High- Priests, one being such by divine right, the other by the Roman usurpation. They managed cunningly to work together, An nas being father-in-law of Caiphas. It was when our Lord began to preach that this lowest depth of degradation had been reached : three rulers in the politi cal order, Pilate governing Judea, with his headquarters in Jerusalem ; the two Herods, Antipas and Philip, both slaves of Rome, having nominal authority over the rest of Palestine ; in the religious order two High-Priests, one real and secret, the other open and spurious. Could a worse condition of things be imag ined? And what was the hope of Israel? It was the promised Messias. head-pieces OF JEWISH PRIESTS. TYPES OF JEWISH PRIESTS. t8 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. Daily the faithful Hebrew, in his family devotions, prayed for the coming of his Saviour. In the public ceremonies of religion the sublime tones of the Mosaic liturgy eloquently chanted God's promise of a Re deemer. Hence the strained look for His advent, especially at the opening of the Christian era, when the prophetic seventy weeks of years were nearly com pleted. "Art thou He that is to come, or look we for another?" demanded the High-Priests of John the Baptist. Israel never ceased to hope. Whether groaning under persecutions or even scandalized by apostate High-Priests, the voice of the prophets, the last of whom was dead four hundred years, still echoed in the souls of the chosen people, still was implicitly believed, telling of the coming of the Saviour, the Desired of Nations, the Seed of the Woman, the Fruit of the Virgin's womb, the Lawgiver superior to Moses, the Child-God of the House of David. Whether wailing out his prayers in the Temple, or tearfully explaining the sacred promise to his children, or writhing beneath the heel of the Roman soldier, or wildly shouting defiance against the pagan stranger in bloody revolt, the true Israelite always trusted in the coming of his Messias. The people of God were about to be rewarded for having cherished this Grace of Expectation. II. THE WRITINGS WHICH TELL OF JESUS. St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. j HE first writings which told the Church- about her Founder were probably, the Epistles of St. Paul. Some of these,, it is believed, an tedate the earliest of the four Gospels. Throughout his writings St. Paul shows perfect familiarity with his Master, whom he had probably seen and heard in the flesh, and to whom he was drawn, after his conversion at the gate of Damascus, into an intimate spiritual .union,, filled with special revelations. From the divine prer existence of Jesus to His guidance of the individual soul by His Holy Spirit, every principle of His re^ ligion and many of the details of His life are narrated or expounded by this most powerful of Christian teachers. St. Luke, a disciple of St. Paul, has re corded in the Book of the Acts the earliest public discourses on the life and doctrine of Jesus, namely,,, those of St. Peter and others of the disciples in the beginning of their ministry. These are brief sum maries of the career of our Saviour, from His con nection with the old Scriptures as the fulfilment oi- their prophecies, to His ascension into heaven and sending down the Holy Ghost, outlining His preach ing, journeys, miracles, betrayal, accusation, trial, execution, and His resurrection from the dead. These witness the all-pervading, knowledge of Christ and of His mission in the primitive Church ; but they are not the foremost sources of the Saviour's Life. Sur passing all other evidence is the Gospel, the Glad 19 io LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. Tidings, consisting of the four narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. THE FOUR GOSPELS. \ Brief as are these narratives, their power over the human mind, especially when read by seekers after a better life, is a /wonderful fact in literary history. No book but God's book could so master the upright heart as the book of the Gospels has always done. In language which is a medium of incomparable clear ness, facts are recited and rules of conduct are laid down which have superseded all previous moralizings and philosophizings, and capped with supreme beauty all former history. Simplicity is their foremost literary attribute ; nay, literary defects are everywhere found, lack of artistic grouping, fragmentary jumbling of occurrences and precepts, memoranda of apparently chance conversations ; yet the events are the manifest power of God. But Holy Church, divinely guided, could alone set tle the question of their inspiration and authenticity. It is the divine and human character of Jesus Christ living, speaking, organizing, dying, rising and ascending into heaven, that is shown in these books. If God be King of men, He is King in the king dom of books, and so the book which tells of the Son of God may well be God's. This explains the tears of penitence its reading brings forth, like the touch of the rod of Moses on the rock in the desert ; this explains the ever-increasing veneration in which the Gospels are held by the best men and women in all ages. This power of the Four Gospels began immediately with their publication. We find them unanimously accepted in the Church as the Word of God as early as any extant records tell of THE FOUR GOSPELS. 21 the Christian people. Roman Africa is witnessed for by Tertullian ; Alexandria and Egypt by Clement ; Irenaeus received them from Polycarp and witnesses for Greece and Asia Minor; Justin Martyr, bred and converted in Syria, quotes them in Rome ; all citing them as irrefutable witnesses of the Christian faith. The Church of the martyrs could not be wrong, all wrong, hopelessly wrong, in a matter of such vital importance. Thus the peculiar and undeniable power of the Gospels over men generally is illustrated by the veneration in which they were held in the heroic age of our re ligion. But, furthermore, the historical and extrinsic evidence which links these books ANCIENT BOOK OP THE gospels. to the writers whose names they- bear is complete. Citations from them, attributing authorship to all the Evangelists respectively, are found in several Chris tian writers who were themselves disciples of the Apostles, such as Clement of Rome and Polycarp of Smyrna. About the year 115 Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, a disciple of the Apostles, says that " Matthew wrote the Saviour's discourses in Hebrew, and each one has translated his text as best he may. As to Mark, he is the spokesman of Peter, and has carefully written down whatever his memory retained." If we had more than a small fragment of Papias, we should doubtless find his testimony to Luke and John. Oral tradition is unbroken in its testimony that th; present Gospels were originally the work of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — a form of evidence of conclusive force where the authentica tion of a document, as in this case, is essentially joined to living faith, and in an organization like the Church of Christ created and perpetuated by the 22 LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. living word of preachers. Christian tradition, both early and late, is universally in favor of the authen ticity of the Gospels, as well as of their inspiration. In fact, every species of human evidence establishes the Gospels as the work of men who actually saw and heard Jesus Christ, two of them, Matthew and John, writing what they personally knew, Mark and Luke what was imparted to them by other Apostles. The Great Book of the New Law is not the fantas tic imaginings of Eastern mystics, but compilations of exact history. The Gospel of St. Matthew. Matthew was a Galilean employed as a collector of the Roman tax — a publican. He was a full-blood Jew, originally named Levi, and was converted by Christ instantaneously, being called from his toll-booth by the Master. His Gospel, mainly addressed to the Jews, is written from their point of view ; his Jesus is the Messias of the law and the prophets. On his opening page Matthew af firms and proves the legal right of our Saviour to the sceptre of King David. The Evangelist centres in his Master the converging realization of God's prom ises of a Lawgiver supe rior to Moses, the Saviour of mankind and the divine ly accepted Victim of their sins, the Judge of the world, whose second com ing would finally complete the covenant. His witness THE CALLING OF MATTHEW. THE GOSPELS OF ST. MA TTHEW AND ST. MARK. 23 to Jesus of Nazareth as the founder and organizer of a new and visible, though spiritual, kingdom, the Christian Church, is especially full. As to the date of the composition of the first Gospel, no one places it later 2, CT-JM^jtCfCXlovXCNloy j A.€NeinoNe