the sinful, had a God near at hand and easy of access. He was no longer to be regarded as a monarch, but as a Father. No longer was it to be taught that he reigned to levy exactions, but to pour boundless treasure out of his own heart upon the needy. God sought those who before sought him. The priest stood no nearer to God than the humblest peasant. God was as near to the Magdalen as to the Virgin Mary. He was presented to the heart and imagination as the great Helper.

The qualification for approach to him was simply NEED. They stood nearest to Divine mercy that needed most.

AD as the Samaritans were esteemed to be by the Jews,

they excelled the people of Jerusalem both in cordial reception of the truth and in hospitality. There is no narrative of Christ's words or actions during the two days which he was persuaded to tarry in Samaria, but some idea may be formed of his teachings from the conversations held with Nicodemus and with the Woman at the Well. The lost discourses of Jesus were far more numerous than those which have been preserved, and one cannot refrain from regret that so much inimitable teaching served but the purpose of the hour, and passed out of mind without an authentic memorial.

Leaving Samaria, he bent his steps toward Galilee as toward a shelter. Although it was like drawing near to his home, yet his original home, Nazareth, seems never to have had attractions for him, or to have deserved his regard. He gave as a reason for not returning there, that a "prophet hath no honor in his own country." But he was cordially received in other parts of Galilee. The echo of his doings in Jerusalem had come down to the provinces. Many Jews from this region had been at Jerusalem, and had both heard him and seen his works.

What was probably more to the purpose, they had heard the opinions of the chief men of the Temple, who, though in watchful suspense, were hoping that he might prove to be the longed

for Leader and Deliverer. The tacit approval of the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem would go far with the devout provincial Jews.

Probably attracted by the cordiality of friends in Cana, where he had wrought his first miracle, Jesus repaired thither. But he had now become a celebrity. It was known in all the region that he had returned from Jerusalem. And here we come upon one of those striking scenes of which we shall see so many during his career, pictures they seem, rather than histories. Out of the nameless crowd some striking figure emerges, — a ruler, a centurion, a maniac, a foreign woman. Under the eye

of Christ these personages glow for a moment with intense individuality, and then sink back into obscurity. No history precedes them; no after account of them is given. Like the pictures which the magic lantern throws upon the screen, they seem to come from the air and to melt again into nothing; and yet, while they remain, every line is distinct and every color intense.

Such a picture is that afforded by the courtier of Capernaum. A "nobleman" he is miscalled in the English version; probably he was only a house-officer under Herod Antipas, but with some pretensions to influence. In common with others, he had heard of Jesus; and, as rumor always exaggerates, he doubtless supposed that the new prophet had performed more cures than at that time he had done. This officer, who would at other times have listened to Jesus only as a fashionable man would listen to a wandering magician, for the diversion of a spare moment, had a son lying at the point of death with a fever, that plague of Capernaum. Sorrow makes men sincere, and anguish makes them earnest. The courtier sought out this Jesus; and as in critical danger the proudest men are suppliant to the physician, so he "besought him that he would come down and heal his son." To heal that boy was easy; yet, as if the boon were far too small for the generosity of his heart, Jesus purposed not only to restore the child to his parent, but to send back a more excellent father to the child. And so, that he might awaken his better nature and prepare him to receive the bounty, not as a matter of course but as a gift of God, he dealt with his petitioner as fond parents do with their children,

when they excite their eagerness and their pleasure by holding the coveted gift above their reach, and cause them to vibrate between desire and doubt. "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."

The mere thought of losing his boy through an unbelieving spirit seemed to touch the father's very heart, and without protestations he showed his faith by bursting out into an agony of imperious persuasion: "Sir, come down ere my child die!"

It was enough. The fountain was stirred. Jesus did better than he was asked. Instead of going to Capernaum, twentyfive miles distant, his spirit darted healing power, and he dismissed the believing parent: "Go thy way; thy son liveth."

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That the father believed truly is plain in that he accepted the word without a doubt, and turned homeward with all haste, as one who fears no evil. It was about one o'clock when the conference with Christ took place; and the next day in the afternoon, as he was on the road, his servants met him with "Thy son liveth," and upon inquiry they informed him that yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." This is the more remarkable, because it departed in the very heat and glow of the day, as well as at the very hour when Jesus said, Thy son liveth." From that moment the courtier became a believing disciple, and with him his whole household. Thus the passing sickness of one is blessed to the spiritual restoration of a whole family. Sorrows are often precursors of mercy. Those are blessed troubles which bring Christ to us. But for that boy's deathly sickness, the father might have missed his own immortality. By it he saved his own soul and the souls of his household, and not only recovered his son, but dwells with him eternally. For "himself believed, and his whole house."1

1

Many commentators have supposed that this incident is the same as that recorded by Matthew and Luke. (Matt. viii. 5-13; Luke vii. 1-10.) But the differences are utterly irreconcilable. In one case it was a Roman centurion, in the other an officer of Herod's household, that solicited Christ's interference. The courtier's son was sick; the centurion's servant. The centurion sent the elders of the Jews to Jesus; the courtier came himself. The courtier besought Christ to come to his house, but his child was healed from a distance; Jesus offered to go to the centurion's house, but, with extreme humility, that officer declared himself unworthy of such a guest, and besought him, with a striking military figure, to heal his servant by a word. The points of resemblance are

But the time must come when Jesus should preach in the town where his childhood and much of his early manhood were spent. Not long after this act of mercy to the servant of Herod, Jesus came to Nazareth. On the Sabbath he entered the synagogue familiar to him from his youth. The scene which took place is one of the most remarkable in this period of his history. His life was imperilled in an unlooked for uproar which broke out in the synagogue when he was conducting the service. For the Jewish synagogue had no ordained and regular minister; the ruler, and in his absence the elders, twelve of whom sat upon the platform where the reading-desk was placed, called from the congregation any person of suitable age and character who could read fluently and expound with propriety the lessons of the Law and the Prophets.1

few, and such as might easily occur where so many miracles were wrought. The divergences are so marked that to make the cases one and the same would introduce difficulties where none really exist, except in the imagination of commentators.

We quote a brief extract from Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia (Art. “Synagogue," by Christian D. Ginsburg), to illustrate the reading of the Scriptures by Christ:

:

"To give unity and harmony to the worship, as well as to enable the congregation to take part in the responses, it was absolutely necessary to have one who should lead the worship. Hence, as soon as the legal number required for public worship had assembled, the ruler of the synagogue, or in his absence the elders, delegated one of the congregation to go up before the ark to conduct divine service.

"The function of the apostle of the ecclesia was not permanently vested in any single individual ordained for this purpose, but was alternately conferred upon any lay member who was supposed to possess the qualifications necessary for offering up prayer in the name of the congregation. This is evident from the reiterated declarations both in the Mishna and the Talmud.

"Thus we are told that any one who is not under thirteen years of age, and whose garments are not in rags, may officiate before the ark; that if one is before the ark (ministers for the congregation), and makes a mistake (in the prayer), another one is to minister in his stead, and he is not to decline it on such an occasion.' The sages have transmitted that he who is asked to conduct public worship is to delay a little at first, saying that he is unworthy of it; and if he does not delay he is like unto a dish wherein is no salt, and if he delays more than is necessary he is like unto a dish which the salt hath spoiled.'

"How is he to do it? The first time he is asked, he is to decline; the second time, he is to stir; and the third time, he is to move his legs and ascend before the ark. Even on the most solemn occasions when the whole congregation fasted and assembled with the president and vice-president of the Sanhedrim for national humiliation and prayer, no stated minister is spoken of; but it is said that one of the aged men present is to deliver a penitential address, and another is to offer up the solemn prayers.

"It was afterwards ordained that, 'even if an elder or sage is present in the congregation, he is not to be asked to officiate before the ark, but that man is to be delegated who is apt to officiate, who has children, whose family are free from vice, who has a proper beard, whose garments are decent, who is acceptable to the people, who has a