On another occasion, as he was going to the village of Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a crowd of followers, he met a funeral procession close by the gate. The only son of a widow was being carried to his grave, and the sympathy naturally felt for his mother had attracted a number of the villagers to the procession. Now when the Lord saw her he was deeply moved, and said to her, "Weep no more!" Then he went up to the bier and laid his hand on it, upon which the bearers stood still and Jesus cried, "Young man, arise!" and at once the dead man stood up and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. All present were overwhelmed with awe and praised God. "A mighty prophet has risen among us!" they cried. "God has graciously remembered his people!" and all Judæa and the whole country round rang with the name of Jesus.1

2

These stories are not without artistic merit, but from a religious point of view they have little or no value. To translate a word of the Holy Spirit into a material prodigy is any thing but a deed of faith. For the rest, the gradual heightening of the marvel is obvious. First we have a girl, who has but just expired; then a young man, who is on the point of being buried. Before long it was asserted that Jesus had restored a body to life after it had been buried four days and was already decomposing! But this latter story belongs to a different class, and the two we have given already are quite enough. We shall not stay to indicate the parallels between these narratives and the raisings from the dead by Elijah and Elisha; for our only purpose in giving them at all was to illustrate the spirit of the age. If the Christians could not believe in Jesus as the Christ, or at least could not justify their belief without producing such stories as these, we can well understand the reproach which a writer of the second century makes Jesus aim at his fellow-countrymen and contemporaries; "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.'

In connection with Paul's declaration given above, these words might be paraphrased: "The reason why the Jews never believed in Jesus was that they never saw him do signs and wonders."

We have now pointed out and described the enemy with which Jesus had to wrestle, and can go on to the circumstances under which the deadly encounter took place. That Jesus

1 Luke vii. 11-17.

2 John xi.

3 John iv. 48.

should be required to show "a sign" was but the natural consequence of the general want of all real sense of truth.

Our accounts are so wofully confused that it is impossible to say with certainty whence the demand came, whether it was repeated more than once, and if so what was its special significance on each occasion. As to the first point, however, we may be tolerably certain that the demand came from the usual opponents of Jesus, and not from the people gerciany. The Pharisees, then, or more especially the Pharisaic Scribes, demanded a sign of him; for they felt sure he would not be able to give it, and so they hoped to drive him into a strait. Matthew tells us that they made the demand on two occasions. Now, as a rule, when we find the same thing twice in the same Gospel, we simply lay the repetition to the Evangelist's account, and suppose that he had found two more or less discrepant versions of the same affair, and had accepted them as referring to distinct events. But in the present case we

cannot do so, for on comparing Matthew with the other two Gospels, and observing the great difference between the answers of Jesus on the two occasions, we are compelled to distinguish between them. But since Matthew has thrown his materials together without regard to their true connection, our safest course will be to lay all the stress upon the answers of Jesus and endeavor to make out from them the special bearing of the questions. By this means we arrive at some such conception of what took place as follows:

Some time ago the Pharisees had endeavored to bring Jesus into a strait by the question, "When is the kingdom of God coming?" Surely he who had announced the kingdom as near at hand from his very first appearance, he whose preaching had such constant reference to its advent, might fairly be supposed to know when it was coming. "The kingdom of God," answered Jesus, "comes in no visible form; and no one can say, 'See! here it is!' or 'See! it is there!' for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." This answer was evidently based on a misunderstanding, probably an intentional one. The "coming" of which the Pharisees spoke was the glorious establishment of the Messianic kingdom, whereas the answer of Jesus referred to its gradual preparation. The formation of a society of the future citizens was itself the "coming of the kingdom;' and, since that was the only sense in which men had any thing to do with it, those who sought for the salvation to 1 See p. 255.

come had only to attach themselves to Jesus.

and final triumph might be safely left to God.

The complete

Of course this answer did not in the least degree satisfy the questioners; so they presently came to him again with a more direct request: "If the kingdom of God is, as you say, close at hand, show us at least some one of the signs in heaven which are to precede the Messianic age.' What could appear more reasonable than such a request? Every one knew that the end of the present age was to be heralded by fearful signs in heaven. The light of the sun was to be put out, the moon turned to blood, the stars robbed of their brightness, and many other fearful signs were to be shown!1 If only one of these could be produced, they would be content; but if not, they must decline to surrender themselves to an idle joy which must end in a bitter disappointment: and surely Jesus himself could hardly expect them to believe in him on his bare word! Jesus saw at once the extreme difficulty of his position. "Do you want," he replied with some acerbity, a sign in the sky that the kingdom of God is indeed at hand? When the sky is red at even you say, It will be fine to-morrow, as those evening tints declare.' If the sky is a lurid red in the early morning, you say, 'There will be a storm to-day, for the clouds are threatening.' You know well enough how to read the face of the sky, and can you not read the signs of the times?" Or, as Luke reports the words: "When you see a little cloud rising in the West, you say at once, It is going to rain.' And so it does. And when the south wind rises, you say, 'It will be hot to-day.' And so it is. You hypocrites! you can discern the face of earth and heaven, why can you not discern the times?" By the "signs of the times" he probably meant the remarkable spiritual signs which distinguished the age, rather than the deep political distress of the people.' Had he explained himself more fully, he would have pointed to one clear and unmistakable sign in the impetuous longing for the kingdom of God which had prevailed ever since John began to preach; and more especially to his own work and teaching, and the result they had produced. And again, was not the conversion of "sinners," and the religious movement among the "peoples of the land," a fulfilment of the ancient prophecies that spoke of the salvation to come? But such

6

1 See, for example, Joel ii. 10, 31, iii. 15; Matthew xxiv. 29, 30; Acts ii. 19. 20; Revelation vi. 12, 13, xvi. 18, et seq.

facts as these, though proof enough to Jesus that he had not misinterpreted the voice of his own heart,1 were beneath the notice of the Scribes. Indeed, in some instances they were a distinct source of offence to the "clean." Consequently his opponents were not even aware that Jesus had wrested their weapon from their hands and turned it against their own bosoms. And he on his side, knowing that their hearts and consequently their eyes were closed against him, departed from them rather than expose himself to fruitless controversy and further questioning.

But the Pharisees did not intend to leave him at peace so long as they still met him on their way. If he could not give any guarantee for the fulfilment of the beautiful promises he made, let him at any rate produce his credentials and show his own personal right to speak! "Master," they said to him on another occasion, "we would gladly see a sign from you." They meant by a sign some miracle to prove that God had sent him. Here, if anywhere, they seemed to be distinctly within their rights; and here they could rely on having the people completely on their side, if only out of curiosity. The case was this: Jesus professed to be a prophet, and as such he was reverenced by the masses who honored him so highly. Now they, the Pharisees, declared that they were ready and anxious to acknowledge him themselves, he would but satisfy their reasonable demand for proofs There had never been a prophet, they urged, who had not performed miracles. For several centuries there had been no prophets at all, and generations ago their ancestors had already begun to look forward eagerly to the coming of a messenger from God who could remove their difficulties; 2 and now a man from Nazareth came and professed to be such a messenger, was it any thing out of the way to request him to substantiate his claims? Was Jesus baffled by the Pharisees' request? No; but he was filled with the deepest indignation by their dulness of perception and blindness to the light of truth. Mark, who confuses this with the previous request, tells us that Jesus heaved a deep sigh that rose from his inmost soul, and said: "Why does this generation want a sign? I tell you, of a truth, if a sign be given to this generation-!" This broken form of words was the strongest mode of asserting that a thing would never happen. Matthew and Luke give the answer at greater length.in the

1 Compare pp. 254, 255; and Matthew xxiv. 32, 33.

2 Compare Psalm 1xxiv. 9; 1 Maccabees ix. 27, iv. 46, xiv. 41.

"A

form of a rebuke introduced by an absolute refusal : wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, and no sign shall be given it but the sign of the prophet Jona!" Jesus denounces those who ask for a sign as men who show their moral degradation and want of true piety by their hardness of heart and utter incapacity to judge of the truth, and yet more in their evil design of drawing the people away from him by teaching them to suspect the preacher who had no credentials. This appeal to the "sign of Jona" implies a heavy threat; but neither it nor the verses that follow are much to the purpose here. We shall discuss and explain them in the following chapter, when we find Jesus, disappointed in his own people, turning his eyes to the heathen world.

This

At present we need only remark that this demand for a sign, though made in the politest form, was on both occasions a most damaging method of attack; for the opponents of Jesus had public opinion entirely on their side. completely explains the violence with which Jesus repelled the attack. In this matter he could not appeal to the people from their leaders,1 for all were alike infected with this thirst for marvels. Jesus asked his brother men to believe in him because he spoke the truth, and the truth must and should be recognized by every heart. But reason and conscience are the organs by which truth is perceived, and their development in Palestine at this period was so imperfect and onesided that they could no longer be trusted. Jesus had only too much reason to utter the solemn warning, "Look to it that the light which is in you be not darkness!" 2

For a

Had Jesus been a man of brilliant personal gifts, such as permanently fascinate and carry away the multitudes, the people would have clung to him still. But there was nothing sufficiently distinguished or uncommon about him. time the novelty of his mission, the enthusiasm with which he spoke and acted, in a word, his moral force, - created some excitement; but this first impression gradually passed away, and at last every one became accustomed to him, wanted something fresh, and demanded some more startling sign than the occasional cure of a single demoniac. And in proportion as this indifference or unbelief increased, Jesus on his side raised his demands and adopted a tone of authority and an attitude of command unknown before. And so the alienation grew. A brief flicker of enthusiasm when he set 2 See p. 159.

1 Compare pp. 278, 280.