Messianic views of Jesus were identical with those of the nation, with the exception that the triumphal advent would be the second, instead of the first appearance of the promised Saviour of the people. And thus the first Christians were simply Jews who participated in the national expectation of the triumphal Messiah of the prophets, but believed he had already passed a brief period on earth.

CHAPTER XI.

THE TRAGEDY OF CALVARY.

Ar length the tragedy of Calvary was at hand. Jesus had deeply wounded the susceptibilities of the sacerdotal and philosophic formalists of his day, by the mere suggestion of a kingdom of heaven from which they were to be excluded; and, true to the spirit of religious intolerance which has characterised Hebrew and Christian theology, from the slaughter of the Canaanites to the massacre of St. Bartholomew, they doomed the too candid Prophet to destruction, who had dared to form independent opinions on subjects within their own realm of thought.

Conscious that his enemies were plotting his destruction, Jesus retired to the privacy of Gethsemane to finally think out the awful problem of prophetic fatality, and make one last appeal to his Father in heaven for merciful reconsideration of Isaiah's cruel prediction: 'He was taken from prison and from judgment, he was cut off out of the land of the living.' This is the decree of an inspired prophet, but can it be the will of God that innocent blood should be shed? Is there no way of escape from prophetic destiny? Is he doomed to silence before the judgment-seat, to be led forth as a dumb animal to the slaughter? Was not Isaac snatched at the last moment from the sacrificial knife?

and may not a way of escape be found for him also? Alas! no prophet ever predicted the premature death of Isaac; he was not, therefore, inevitably doomed to die, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Enoch speaks only of the Son of Man sitting upon the throne of his glory; why, therefore, should Isaiah destine him to pass through the portals of death to the possession of his kingdom? Alas! it is written; and what mortal can blot out Scripture? O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.'1 Hush! Is that a voice from heaven? the flutter of an angel's wings? No! it is but the sighing of the wind, which mocks him with one brief moment of reviving hope. He turns for human sympathy towards the men whom he has chosen as his companions in the Messianic career, but even this consolation is denied him. These poor simple-minded peasants, as incompetent for the conception or execution of a great design as a group of modern fishermen, slumber, with childlike indifference to the awful ordeal through which their Lord and Master is passing.

Again and again the predestined victim of the prophets vainly appeals for mercy to his Father in heaven; and at length recognising the impossibility of divine interference with Scripture, even to prevent the judicial murder of the innocent, he yields with pious and noble resignation to the forecast of Isaiah.

Jesus is arrested by the myrmidons of the chief priests and elders. One of the apostles having shown a disposition to resist violence, Jesus said, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall pre

1. Matt. xxvi. 39.

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sently give me more than twelve legions of angels? but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? ' 1 Could language give us clearer insight into the nature of that pernicious superstition which lured Jesus into the interpretation and fulfilment of prophecy, under the fatal illusion that he was thus accomplishing the divine will and purpose? What limits can we place to the self-sacrifice of noble minds controlled by the fanaticism which hears the voice of God in the accents of priests and prophets?

Let us, however, assume, in justice to the unknown author of Isa. liii., that could he have anticipated the tragic consequences of his poetic rhapsodies, he would have thrust his right hand into the flames, rather than pen the lines which were to cause the martyrdom of Calvary.

• Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.' Other men of commanding genius have been happy in the choice of friends faithful unto death; but Jesus failed to secure the fidelity of even one disciple in the hour of his desperate extremity. How unfortunate are the ancient Hebrews in their historians, whether Mosaic or evangelical, who so frequently depict them as destitute. of the heroism so conspicuous in the annals of Aryan races!

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Jesus stands in the presence of his sacerdotal judges, calmly resolute in his adherence to the programme of Isaiah: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.' The meaning of the pro

1 Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.

phet is clear. No word in self-defence may pass from his lips. False witnesses appear against him, but Jesus maintains the self-denial of unbroken reticence. The High Priest adjures him by the living God to declare whether he is the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus at length answers in the affirmative, and adds, Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.' Thus Jesus openly declares that he is the Hebrew Messiah; and as his pretensions are apparently irreconcilable with the humiliation of his position, he announces the glories of the second advent predicted by Enoch and Daniel. The words 'Son of God' from the lips of the high priest, if not an interpolation, can only be synonymous with the Messiah; for how could he have anticipated a divinity unheard of till the second century? or why should Jesus, claiming to be the Son of God, reply in words which referred to the Son of Man?

If the Sanhedrim were ignorant of the visions of Enoch, its Pharisaic members were at least familiar with the imagery of Daniel, and might well have listened with compassion to the visionary simplicity of the man who thus identified himself with the dreams of prophetic bards. But why expect compassion, or even justice, from the ministers of a theology prolific in pious cruelty and sacred massacre? Sufficient that a Galilean peasant has proclaimed a kingdom of heaven unknown to Hebrew orthodoxy, and now thus blasphemously speaks of appearing in the clouds of heaven; -away with him to speedy execution! In our compassionate tenderness for the noble enthusiast thus un