learned, with absolute certainty, that these were the highest and purest truths which man could find; that they made plain to all, whether to the repentant sinner or to the steadfastly virtuous, the closeness of their relationship to God, the absolute reverence they owed to Him, and the natural union which should make them one with Him. Then he perceived that he must look for no other greater than himself, no Messiah whose forerunner he was, and who would take his stand above him; and at last he made the heroic resolve that he would be the Messiah himself; that he himself, cost what it might, would found that kingdom of God, the near approach of which he had announced.

But he never for a moment dreamed of ascending an earthly throne as the Messiah. Nothing could have been further from his thoughts. Long ago he had formed a far purer conception of the kingdom of God than that entertained by the ordinary Israelite, or even by John. He had seldom imitated John in hurling forth the threat of a fearful judgment to precede the founding of the kingdom, nor had he ever shared his people's dreams of a fearful vengeance to be inflicted upon the heathen oppressors. His profound and glorious conception was that of a society permeated by the purest principles of piety and virtue, gradually extending itself by its own intrinsic power, until at last definitely established in all its glory by a special act of God. So when he determined to call this Messianic kingdom into being himself, he had utterly renounced all those ideas of worldly splendor which his countrymen atHe was more disposed to extached to the title of Messiah. pect that his life would close in darkness; and, in connection with the unfavorable reception which he now expected for his sublimest conceptions, he began to dwell upon the thought of divine chastisement and the fearful judgment of God far He saw that he could not more than he had done before.

rely on the support of the masses; that the opposition to his person and his principles grew more violent from day to day; that his struggle with the Pharisees, the most powerful relig ious school of the times, was likely to prove fatal to himself. How little had he thought when first he began his work that it could ever come to this! The heavens were then so clear above him; but now they were overcast with dark and ever darker clouds. John bad fallen a victim to his zeal for the kingdom of God, and in his fate Jesus now saw his own foreshadowed. As time went on this presentiment grew stronger and stronger. It cost him an effort to reconcile himself with

the thought that if he must lay down his life for the cause, then facing death was an essential part of the task that was laid upon him, the inauguration of that kingdom of God of which he had been laying the foundations. The first period of his ministry is pervaded by a bright and joyous spirit, but henceforth his manner becomes more depressed, and a tone of sadness is cast over his preaching.

He

But this changed feeling was not wholly due to his altered expectations with reference to his own lot. He had altogether changed his views and anticipations with regard to Israel too. He loved his fatherland with all his heart. prized the religious privileges of his people to the utmost. He had hoped, with the ancient prophets, that Israel would fulfil its calling, and would take the first place in God's kingdom. Though the heathen were also to be admitted, yet Israel would still be the guide and the light of the nations. But the violent opposition he had encountered on the one side, and the indifference he had met with on the other, had gradually taught him to know his people better; and now he saw that the close of Israel's glorious history would be far other than he once had thought. His people, as a people, would be shut out from the kingdom of God, and his country was rushing upon a miserable fate.

Jesus perceived that the decisive moment for his work, for bis life, for his people, was at hand. He determined to prepare his disciples for the crisis. He had never yet proclaimed himself the Messiah, or given utterance to his dark forebodings. Once, when he was journeying through the northern portion of the country, unaccompanied except by his twelve more intimate companions, he asked them whom men thought he was, and whom they held him to be themselves. They answered that the mass of his followers still looked on him as the forerunner of the kingdom of God, but that as for themselves they reverenced him as the Messiah. Jesus accepted their testimony, but sternly forbade them to speak of it to any one. Soon afterwards he added that he was not destined to become a king, but rather to be put to death at Jerusalem. But his disciples simply could not understand or believe his words, though he afterwards repeated them several times still more distinctly.

Why did he go to Jerusalem if so fully conscious of the danger it involved? Because it was absolutely necessary for the cause he had at heart that he should do so, and, when duty called, anxiety for his personal safety must not hold

him back. His conduct had already roused such opposition that he could hardly limit his activity to so remote a place as Galilee without appearing to hold back on purpose. And besides, even there the opposition had become so strong that he could not well continue his work on the same footing as before. But his chief reason for going up to Jerusalem was that it was the focus of Israel's religious life, in which all great religious questions must be fought out. There and there only could he give his people the choice between his principles, his thoughts about God's character and will, his spiritual conception of the kingdom of God on the one hand, and the prevailing formalism represented by the Scribes on the other. His countrymen must then make their choice He took advantage of the approaching Passover to execute his plan, for thousands of Jews, from every quarter of the world, would stream to the temple to celebrate that feast.

He accomplished this memorable journey to the capital by easy stages. He took his way through the district east of Jordan, crossed the ford at Jericho, spent the night in that city with a public functionary of the name of Zacchæus, passed on through Bethany, where he already had or now made faithful friends, and then crossed the Mount of Olives, and entered Jerusalem surrounded by a troop of Galilæans, who raised shouts of joy and triumph in his honor. He at once asserted his mission as a religious reformer, by driving out the dealers and the sacrificial beasts from the forecourt of the temple. He remained at Jerusalem for several days, preaching in one of the halls of the temple, and from time to time involved in controversial disputes. But at night he withdrew into a secret place of retreat, for he knew that his liberty and life were threatened. The authorities at Jerusalem, who regarded him as a false prophet, or dreaded the effect of his preaching upon public order, tried to get him into their power, but dared not lay hands on him by day for fear his followers should raise a tumult. But when he had eaten the Passover with his disciples on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, one of them betrayed his place of refuge to the Sanhedrim. Under cover of the darkness he was seized, and was instantly tried and condemned as a blasphemer or heretic. The law prescribed stoning as the punishment of this offence, but the Roman governor, to whom application must be made for leave to carry out the sentence of death, took the affair into his own hands, and had Jesus crucified on the first day of the feast, upon a hill called Golgotha, outside the city walls.

By such a murderous issue was the richest of human lives brought to a hasty close. But Jesus had foreseen it and had not shrunk from it. It was needful to his cause. The future of his work was secured; the kingdom of God was founded. In this conviction Jesus breathed his last, undergoing a fearful martydom.

V.

THE execution of the Master was a crushing blow to the disciples. They had flattered themselves to the last with the belief that he whom they had reverenced as the Messiah would ascend the royal throne. And now that he was put to death as a malefactor, their faith for a moment gave way and they knew not what to think of him. They hastened back to Galilee, and there they slowly recovered from the shock. The Master's words came back to their minds, his image rose again before them, and under the influence of varied reminiscences and impressions the belief in his Messiahship revived, and the disciples were convinced that he could not have remained in the land of shadows, but must have risen from the dark realms of the dead and been received for a time into heaven. And now they thought that he would soon return from heaven to earth to assume the Messiah's crown, which had been refused to him before by the obstinate want of faith of the people, and especially of their leaders and governors. So they returned to Jerusalem, and there appeared as witnesses to Jesus and as heralds of the kingdom of God which was now so close at hand. Their preaching gained a hearing. The scattered followers of Jesus rallied round them, and their numbers were increased by the adhesion of new members, among whom a Levite of the island of Cyprus Barnabas by name is mentioned with special honor. A small community, distinguished by the brotherly love and mutual beneficence of its members, was established in the capital, and slowly but steadily increased.

The authorities left them for the most part unmolested. Neither ecclesiastical nor social institutions had any thing to fear from them. They made no disturbance, and what was more they remained absolutely true to the Jewish ideas of religious life, not only strictly abiding by the precepts of the Law, but distinguishing themselves by especial care and fidelity in the observances of religion and zeal in frequenting

the temple. They were not alone in looking forward with longing expectation to the speedy coming of the Messiah, and the only point in which they differed from their fellowcitizens was their conviction that that Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth. They had evidently grasped but little of the spirit of the Master who had risen so high above the popular religion and assumed an attitude of such perfect freedom with regard to the observances of the Law.

But in the community of Jesus, mockingly called after him "the sect of the Nazarenes," there were some who had comprehended more of his true principles. The difference of opinion was developed by the accession of foreign Jews, who had settled at Jerusalem, and certain proselytes; for these classes were, as a rule, less narrow and prejudiced than the Palestinian Jews. A dispute in the bosom of the community which had hitherto been so harmonious brought seven of these more liberal Nazarenes into prominence. One of them, whose name was Stephen, proclaimed that when Jesus returned from heaven as the Messiah the external precepts of the Law would be rescinded, and the service of the temple superseded by a purer form of worship. No sooner had this heretical idea been broached, than the storm before which Jesus had fallen broke out with renewed fury. The Apostles and their adherents were spared, for their Judaism was irreproachable; but Stephen was stoned to death as a blasphemer, and his associates were persecuted and threatened with imprisonment, and had to save themselves by flight.

A young Pharisee, of the name of Paul, distinguished himself by his zeal in this persecution. But before long a mighty change was wrought in the soul of this man. He could not shake off the impression which these heretics had made on him. His doubts were confirmed by reflection and research; and since it was against his nature to do any thing by halves, he became a passionate adherent instead of a persecutor of the new faith. First of all he withdrew for a considerable time into Arabia, chiefly to clear his own mind. It was there that he formed his special conception of Jesus, the Messiah, and of his death on the cross as the inauguration of a new covenant between God and man, superseding the old covenant established on Mount Sinai. In this new covenant the Law was annulled, faith was the only condition of salvation, and the distinction between Jew and heathen was removed. On returning from Arabia, Paul appeared as