and then they will fast."1 His mild gaiety found continual expression in lively reflections and kindly pleasantries. "To what," said he, "shall I liken the men of this generation? They are like children sitting in the public square, calling to their fellows, and saying, 'Here we are singing to you, but you will not dance; we are mourning to you, and you will not weep.' 2 John came neither eating nor drinking, and you say, 'He is a madman.' The Son of Man is. come eating and drinking, and you say, 'This is a glutton, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.' Here, again, wisdom is justified by her deeds." Jesus' passage through Galilee was thus a perpetual holiday. He rode on a mule, in the East a creature very good and safe, whose large dark eye, shaded by long lashes, gives it an air of great gentleness. His disciples sometimes displayed around him a kind of rustic pomp, at the expense of their garments, which served as rugs. They would put them on the mule that carried him, or spread them on the earth in his path. When he entered a house it was a joy and a benediction. He would halt in the villages and at the large farms, where he received an eager hospitality. In the East, the house a stranger enters becomes at once a public place. All the village assembles there; the children besiege it: the servants drive them off, 1 Matt. ix. 14–17; Mark ii. 18–22; Luke v. 33–35. 2 Words referring to some childish game. 8 That is, "the act speaks for itself." Matt. xi. 16-19; Luke vii. 32-35. The proverb means that "men are blind; the works of God are made known by the works themselves." (Read ěpywv, not rékvwv, following the Vatican MS. B, and the Cod. Sinaït. The reading in Matthew was probably corrected from that in Luke, which seemed easier.) 4 Matt. xxi. 7, 8. but they keep coming back. Jesus could not suffer these innocent auditors to be roughly treated; he made them come to him, and embraced them.1 The mothers, encouraged by such treatment, brought him their nurslings in order that he might touch them.2 Women came to pour oil upon his head and perfumes on his feet. His disciples sometimes repulsed them as an annoyance; but Jesus, who loved ancient usages and everything that shows simplicity of heart, set right the ill done by his too zealous friends. He protected those who wished to honour him.3 In this way children and women came to adore him. The reproach of alienating from their families these gentle creatures, always ready to be led astray, was one of the most frequent charges of his enemies.* The youthful religion was thus in many respects a movement of women and children. The children were like a juvenile guard around Jesus for the inauguration of his innocent royalty, and offered him little ovations which much pleased him, calling him "son of David," crying Hosanna,5 and bearing palms before him. Jesus, like Savonarola, perhaps made them serve as instruments for pious missions: he was very glad to see these young apostles, who did not compromise him, rush to the front and give him titles which he dared 1 Matt. xix. 13-15; Mark ix. 36, 37; Luke xviii. 15, 16. 2 Mark x. 13-16; Luke. xviii. 15. 8 Matt. xxvi. 7-13; Mark xiv. 3-9; Luke vii. 37-50. 4 See Marcion's addition to Luke xxiii. 2, in Epiphan. xlii. 11. If Marcion's omissions are without critical importance, it is not so with his additions, when they proceed, not from his prepossessions, but from the state of the manuscripts he used. The cry uttered in the processions at the Feast of Tabernacles, with the waving of palms (Mishna, Sukka, iii. 9), — a still existing custom. 5 4 3 not take for himself. He let them speak, and when he was asked if he heard, he replied evasively that the praise which falls from young lips is the most agreeable to God.1 He lost no opportunity of repeating that the little ones are sacred beings; that the kingdom of God belongs to children; that we must become children to enter it; that we ought to receive it as a child; that the Heavenly Father hides his secrets from the wise, and reveals them to babes. The notion of disciples in his mind is almost synonymous with that of children. Once, when the disciples had one of those quarrels for precedence which were not uncommon, Jesus took a little child, placed him in the midst of them, and said, "This is the greatest: whoever shall humble himself as this little child, he is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." 8 9 It was childhood, in fact, in its divine freshness, in its simple bewilderments of joy, which took possession of the earth. Every one believed that at any moment the kingdom so much desired might appear. Each one already saw himself seated on a throne beside the Master. They divided the places among themselves; 10 they strove to reckon the precise date of its advent. This was called the "Glad Tidings": the doctrine had no other name. An old word, "paradise" (borrowed by the Hebrew, as by all Eastern languages, from the Persian), which first denoted the parks of the Persian 1 Matt. xxi. 15, 16. 3 Matt. xix. 14; Mark x. 14; 4 Matt. xviii. 1-6; Mark ix. 5 Mark x. 15. 2 Matt. xviii. 5, 10, 14; Luke xvii. 2. Luke xviii. 16. 33-41; Luke ix. 46. 6 Matt xi. 25; Luke x. 21. ▾ Matt. x. 42; xviii. 5, 14; Mark ix. 36; Luke xvii. 2. Matt. xviii. 4; Mark ix. 33-36; Luke ix. 46-48 10 Mark x. 37, 40, 41. kings, summed up the general dream, - a delightful garden, in which the charming life led here below would be continued forever.1 How long did this intoxication last? We do not know. No one, during the course of this magic apparition, measured time any more than we measure a dream. Duration was suspended: a week was as an age. But, whether it filled years or months, the dream was so beautiful that humanity has lived upon it ever since, and it is still our consolation to inhale its diluted fragrance. Never did so much joy expand the heart of man. For one moment, in the most vigorous effort she ever made to rise above the world, humanity forgot the leaden weight which fastens her to earth, and the sorrows of the life below. Happy he who could see with his own eyes this divine unfolding, and share, though but for a day, this unexampled vision! But more happy still, Jesus would say to us, is he who, freed from all illusion, shall reproduce in himself the celestial vision, and, with no millenarian dream, no chimerical paradise, no signs in the heavens, but by the uprightness of his motive and the poetry of his soul, shall be able to create anew in his heart the true kingdom of God! 1 Luke xxiii. 43; 2 Cor. xii. 4; Carm. Sibyll. prooem. 86; Babylonian Talmud, Chagiga, 14 b. CHAPTER XII. JOHN IN PRISON. WHILE joyous Galilee was celebrating in feasts the coming of the well-beloved, John in his prison of Macharus was sadly pining with expectation and desire. He had learned the success of the young master whom he had seen some months before among his hearers. It was said that the Messiah predicted by the Prophets, he who was to restore the kingdom to Israel, had come, and was making known his presence in Galilee by marvellous works. John wished to inquire into the truth of this rumour, and as he communicated freely with his disciples, he chose two of them to go to Jesus in Galilee.1 The two disciples found Jesus at the height of his fame. The festal air that reigned around him surprised them. Accustomed to fasting, to constant prayer, and to a life full of aspirations, they were astonished to find themselves transported suddenly amidst the joys of welcome. They told Jesus their message: "Art thou he that should come? Or shall we look for another?" Jesus, who now scarce hesitated any longer respecting his proper rank as Messiah, recounted to them the works which were to characterise the coming of the kingdom of God, — healing of the sick, and the 1 Matt. xi. 2-11; Luke vii. 18-23. 2 Matt. ix. 14-17. |