stead of trying to serve God. In practical life he does not insist upon chastity and celibacy, even in the case of his immediate followers. Two among those whom he chooses as disciples are married men. Peter can bring his wife as a member of the company. God joins men and women together; and Jesus, by forbidding divorce, seeks to protect marriage with a stronger buttress than that furnished by the Mosaic law. Accepting whatever devotion women choose to offer, he has a special fondness for those who show most enthusiasm in this regard. In the house where he is staying in a certain village there are two sisters. One of them, Martha, is overburdened with housework, while the other, Mary, comes to sit at Jesus' feet. When Martha asks him to bid Mary help in the chores, he smiles, and answers: "Martha, Martha, thou hast much to care for and art troubled with many occupations; but Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

They all look upon the new teacher as a prophet, and he deems himself one. He does not make a higher claim than this, and sometimes claims even less. Nowhere does he ascribe to himself superhuman memories or hopes; never, at this period, does he even hint at an assumption of the Messianic rôle. When people say that he must be one of the old prophets come again, he keeps his pleasure to himself, being prompt to turn their thoughts towards the kingdom of heaven and the Father of us all. If he is the son of the living God, it is in the sense in which all are who feel in themselves

the working of the creative force out of which we derive our being. Now he finds a new phrase, the better to express his lowliness, speaking of himself as the Son of Man. When the prophets of old had wished to draw attention to the vastness of the gulf which separated them from God, they were wont to describe themselves thus. Ezekiel repeatedly makes the Spirit of the Lord address him as "Son of Man"-a mortal in his weakness, born to suffer and to die; and yet equipped with all the dignity vouchsafed him by God's grace.

Jesus chose this appellation for himself out of Holy Writ, because he wanted the humblest name that the prophets had conceived. The Son of Man, he said, had come not to be served but to serve. Of his human coming and going he speaks in the terms that John had used before him; and when the young man with great possessions addresses him as "Good Master," he refuses to accept the name, and chides the speaker with proud humility: "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God."

V

THUS he leads a life out of touch with the main interests of his day and his nation. Nevertheless, like any other Jew, he shuns contact with the heathen, who are regarded as impure; he warns his disciples against them, and cannot bring himself to exert his powers of healing for their benefit. He can speak of them only with abhorrence; and when he is characterizing a fault he says: "Do not as the heathen do." The heathen seek after money and possessions; the disciples must not carry the glad tidings to them, must not give that which is holy unto the dogs, nor cast pearls before swine. They are to keep away from Samaria, the land with a mixed population, thrust in between the Jewish regions of Galilee and Judea; and if he himself shuns Jerusalem, still more unwilling is he to carry to the Samaritans the message of the God whom the Jews worship in the temple.

Nor do his references to worldly affairs please most of his hearers. He does not preach against Herod, though the tetrarch is keeping John the Baptist in prison; he does not rail against Rome and its worldwide empire; he does not censure the mighty. When one of the company says, "Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me," he is angry,

and replies: "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" As an innovator he is cautious, always trying to link the new on to the old. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

He even tells the multitude to be guided by the Pharisees, to act as the law directs: "Go show yourselves to the priests. . . . What they say unto you, that do." Nevertheless, he is the enemy of these same priests, and they are his enemies.

Attentively they mark his first steps. They invite the new teacher to sit at board with them. The rulers of the synagogue in Capernaum argue with him, address him as "Rabbi," and listen to his guarded suppositions. But this phase is soon over. Their uneasiness grows as Jesus' fame spreads; and they seek occasion to set the people against him. They find him at table, cheerful as ever, a guest among publicans and sinners-for Levi, the customs officer, has bidden friends to meet him. One of the Pharisees asks the disciples: "Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?" Jesus, who is at the other end of the room, hearing the words or grasping the import of the question, fires up, and volleys at the inquirer (a man of unblemished reputation, but Jesus' deadly enemy), the fierce answer: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Go you and learn what