now prosperity," was the prayer of a nation in bondage. for their deliverance. It looked to the Messiah, and was in that sense universally understood.

Beside the observances of the Feast of Tabernacles directed in the Mosaic law, the Jews, after the seventy years' captivity, added other ceremonies upon the seventh day of the feast. They drew water from the Pool of Siloam in a golden pitcher, and bore it to the officiating priest, who poured it, mingled with wine, upon the morning sacrifice, as it lay upon the altar. Water in this ceremony was recognised as the emblem of the Holy Spirit. As the joyfully reverent march proceeded, and the people sang from Isaiah, "With joy shall we draw water out of the wells of salvation :" as the trumpets sounded, and dulcimer and lute and harp lent their responsive melodies: as the palm-branches waved, and the people danced before the Lord while the heavens above smiled in sober cheerfulness upon a harvest ended: and from all the city rose the hum of festivity, and the breath of prayer for an earthly deliverer and temporal prince, a man mighty in war, and strong in the battle: while such was the scene and such were the people's hopes, the Prince of Peace, he who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, stood by and cried: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink!"

Struck with the appositeness of the application, and with the gracious words of the speaker, many of the people said, "Of a truth this is the prophet." Others said, “This is the Christ."

But some said, "Shall Christ come out of

XXVI.

The Kaising of Lazarus.

The time when Jesus should be offered approached, for we are now reviewing the events which took place in the last half of the third year of his ministry. The narrative of this later portion of his life is more particularly dwelt upon by John the Evangelist than by the authors of the other Gospels. Our Redeemer perhaps performed no fewer miracles during the last year than before; but as the other Evangelists were copious in their details of the mighty works which he performed in Galilee, and as those offered sufficient evidence of the divinity of his mission, John's Gospel is devoted more to the preservation of his discourses than to his miracles, and contains principally the record of important events which they had omitted. The Beloved Disciple appears purposely to avoid what others had recorded, and to have intended his Gospel as a supplement to theirs. As he wrote moreover to refute certain errors, he was necessarily more minute in his reports of the words than of the deeds of the Son of God.

He says that many other signs Jesus did in the presence of

his disciples and that if all were written, the world itself would not contain the books. "But these are written that

ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name.”

Between the Feast of the Tabernacles and the Festival of the Dedication, on both of which occasions Jesus was in Jerusalem, he made a journey into Galilee. To the first of these feasts, as we have already noted, he came up secretly, appearing suddenly among the people. To the last he came openly, preaching as he advanced, and announcing his purpose to go to Jerusalem. A touching and holy melancholy rests over this portion of the sacred narrative. The vindictive hatred of the Pharisees exposed him to continual dangers. His preaching had in it a more solemn voice of warning; and his disciples were burthened and oppressed with the assurances which he had so often repeated of the death he should die. To this period are referred several of the most important of his parables, spoken as occasion suggested their utterance, or rather as he perceived that the minds of his hearers were ready to receive them.

During this period Jesus more fully declared his authority and his divine nature than he had done heretofore, and by this the malice of the Jews was increased. In several instances he proclaimed by miracle the truth that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day. The man blind from his birth was healed in Jerusalem, and upon the Sabbath; and the miracle was performed under such circumstances of publicity that the attention of the Jews was compelled to the case, by a warm conversation between the Pharisees and the parents of the man, and by

his own open and bold declaration. In the joy of his heart he defended his benefactor. Joyous indeed, beyond the power of words to describe, and beyond the power of the imagination to conceive, must have been the astonishment of the man born blind, when light, a blessing of which he could previously have had no conception, and of course no hope, broke upon his amazed senses. It was creating for him a new heaven and a new earth. It was giving a tangible body to the voices of the friends, which had cheered him in his long night. It was embodying his idea of the mother whom he had loved, and the father whom he had reverenced; and placing them before him in a form consecrated by affection-and his delight was enhanced by the unexpectedness of the heavenly blessing. The glad earth was bright around, and the kind heavens smiled above him, as, having washed in Siloam, whither he had gone blind, he returned seeing. Boldly did this enlightened man confront the scoffing of the Pharisees; and with unanswerable wisdom did he reply to their sophistry. Thus was he chosen to confound the wise, and when the Jews cast him out of their Synagogue, he was found of God, for Jesus accepted his worship, and confirmed his faith. Even his parents feared to defend him, but he discovered the truth of the saying, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."

In one of the synagogues upon the Sabbath he healed a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years. And on another Sabbath, in the house of a Pharisee, he