which agitate him inwardly, his words carry with them and in them both power and peace. Jesus seeks to prepare his hearers against the shock of his approaching death. “The hour is come," he said, "that the Son of man should be glorified." This glory is not only the new and transfigured life which he will enjoy in his Kingdom at the right hand of his Father, set free for ever from infirmity and death it is also the triumph which he is to win over the Gentile world and all mankind.

In the necessity that the Son of man should die is contained the whole mystery of suffering and sacrifice. Jesus proclaims it as an universal and necessary law in the government of God: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."2 To follow such a Master, who is the perfect incarnation of sacrifice, and whose death is the condition of all life and of all triumph, we must ourselves be sacrificed. In total renunciation lies the way of everlasting life. "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." The glorious fate of the Master will be ours. He gives the assurance to his disciples : "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be if any man serve me, him will my Father honour."8

The thought of his approaching, nay, his imminent death, and of the terrible struggles which were preparing for him, drew from Jesus a cry of agony. Although in perfect agreement with the will of his Father, he felt more keenly than we should an instinctive repugnance to suffering and death, and he laid bare to the sight of his disciples this terrible inward conflict. "Now is my soul troubled," he exclaimed, " and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for

this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name."1 Such is the expression of a will which silences nature and loses itself in God. Jesus devotes himself to death for the glory of his Father. His agony seems to have already begun. This scene is the prelude to it. The occasion was a solemn one; it must have deeply moved those who witnessed it. But a wondrous manifestation came to magnify and exalt him who thus abased himself before God by sacrificing himself to his glory, and before men, by suffering them to see the anguish which tortured him. There came a voice from heaven, the same which had sounded at the Baptism and in the Transfiguration: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

"2

The first glorification of the name of God is evidently that which has Israel for its theatre, and the earthly apostolate of Jesus for its instrument. The second is that which shall one day dazzle the Gentile world and all mankind, when the Spirit of Jesus shall come to reveal the unknown Father. The two glorifications are bound to one another by the awful drama of the Passion and the Cross. The voice from heaven was heard by all, but not understood by all. The multitude were amazed, and said, “It thundered"; others said, " An angel spake to him." "This voice," said Jesus, "came not because of me, but for your sakes." It is necessary that God himself should intervene and speak to us in order to sustain our frail nature when brought face to face with the mystery of sorrow and the law of sacrifice. The suffering and crucified Christ is the stumbling-block of reason; when he appears before it, reason recoils affrighted, unless God himself causes her to see how his name is glorified in the death of his Son and of his chosen ones. And Jesus alone interprets the mysterious voice to our ignorance.

John xii. 27, 28.

2 John xii. 29.

3 John xii. 30.

"Now is the judgment of this world," he added, "now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Never until this hour had Jesus spoken of his death with so firm an accent, or showed more clearly how much that was glorious lay hidden beneath its shame. Some unknown Gentiles in their desire to see and hear him thus called forth the teaching the most obscure to man, the most difficult to accept, and the most necessary. The Crucified One rules over lost mankind, of which the Gentiles form a part; he is to see them pass before him and to judge them. Those who strike the breast and cry, shall be saved; those who blaspheme in impenitence and unbelief, shall be lost. The first only shall be freed from the tyranny of the prince of this world. He shall be vanquished in them and cast out, while a countless company of the elect shall flock together about him who has been uplifted from the earth. This shall be a triumph which will repay the Crucified One for all his humiliations. The Cross, which was the stumbling-block of the Jews, will become for us the wisdom and virtue of God.1

While Jesus was speaking, the multitude had gathered round him. They had heard him speak of the death of the Son of man and of his lifting up upon the cross, and many of them were offended. The idea of a dying Messiah, of a Messiah condemned to the felon's torture, was revolting to a nation accustomed to the idea of a conquering Messiah, the founder of an eternal Kingdom built upon the ruins of Pagan empires. Such was the teaching of the schools founded upon the blind and literal exegesis of the Scriptures, which

1 I. Cor. i. 18.

2 Micah v 2; Ps. cix. 4, lxxxviii. 30-38, lxxi. 5; Isaiah ix. 7, xl. 8, xxxviii. 27; Daniel ix. 26, etc.

1

they could not understand. These same scriptures 1 had not, however, failed to depict in striking colours the struggles, the sufferings, the agonies, and the death of the Son of man; this mystery was veiled to all eyes. At the word "crucifixion," the multitude cried out: "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man ›" In this popular objection we see how great was the stumblingblock which is to come between the multitude and Jesus. A conquered and crucified Messiah cannot be the true Messiah.

The time for

Jesus does not reply to the question. discussing and teaching was gone by. He withdrew with his disciples, making a last appeal to the people in language such as no human lips have spoken: "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe

in the light, that ye may be the children of light." 2

Isaiah liii.; Ps. xxi. ; Dan. ix. 26; Jerem. xi. 19.

CHAPTER IV.

THE COMING RUIN OF JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE.

THE END OF THE WORLD.

ON leaving the Temple, to which he was never more to return, Jesus, more than ever repudiated by the chiefs of the nation, went out, no doubt, by the Gate of Susa, which opened on to the valley of the Cedron, and retired with his followers to Bethany.

The walls which overlook the valley have an imposing appearance, with their large stones and their powerful layers of masonry. One of the disciples brought them under his observation, saying, "Master, see what manner of stones and buildings are here." Others extolled the richness of the gifts with which the Temple was decked out. Perhaps those who attracted the attention of Jesus to the beauty, majesty, and richness of the sacred buildings, may have thought on the terrible menaces which they had heard from his own mouth against Jerusalem and the Temple. Perhaps they may have expressed regret that those walls should be left desolate, which were the wonder of the universe to the mind of every Jew. We cannot tell. But the reply of Jesus was a terrible one: " See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." That same day he had already said to

1 Matt. xxiv. I, etc.; Mark xiii. 1 ; Luke xxi. 5. 2 Matt. xxiv. 1, etc.; Mark xiii. 1; Luke xxi. 5.