man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" He was ready to show that all things were delivered into his hand; that he was indeed the resurrection and the life, and that the dead in the grave should hear his voice. But while this evidence was preparing that he was him of whom the prophet said, "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," he suffered not that those who were to witness his power should forget his human nature, and his human sympathies. The Jews said, "Behold how he loved him ;"-for JESUS WEPT.

The simple majesty and brevity of the Evangelist's narrative forbids paraphrase. The tomb was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take ye away the stone." Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, "Lord by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days." Jesus said unto her, "Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!" And he that was dead, came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, "loose him, and let him go."

XXVII.

The Entry into Serusalem.

From this day forth, alarmed by the raising of Lazarus, the Pharisees took counsel with the Saducees, and even consulted the Herodians, how they might put Jesus to death. Various questions were propounded to make him obnoxious to his countrymen, as opposing the Jewish law, or to commit him in his talk; and when they failed to make him amenable to their own authority, they endeavoured to betray him into treason against Rome. But all ended in astonishing them with his answers, and his wisdom.

Upon marriage the Pharisees questioned him as to the propriety of the writing of divorcement. Jesus rebutted their traditionary perversion of Moses, and declared the divine origin of marriage in the creation, adding, "What God therefore hath joined together, let no man put asunder." And to the Saducees, who held there was no resurrection, and inquired whose wife she should be in the resurrection who should outlive seven husbands, he answered, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." And thence he took occasion to silence the

cavillers at the doctrine that the dead shall rise. Out of their own national history, he confuted the Saducees; since he who announced himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

On another occasion, when he was teaching in the Temple, the chief Priests and Scribes demanded his authority, thinking to entangle him before his hearers. As the Sanhedrim were the conservators of the public faith and worship, this inquiry made in the proper spirit, would have been only in the line of their duty. But there was one other question, preliminary to this, which they had not yet determined. If the authority and witness of John, whom Jesus had endorsed as his forerunner, were accepted, then was there an end of questioning as to the mission of Jesus. He therefore asked them, "The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven, or of men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, why did ye not then believe him?" To believe John would have required acceptance of Christ. "But if we say of men; we fear the people, for all hold John as a prophet." And they answered, "We cannot tell." And Jesus answered them, "Neither tell I you, by what authority I do these things."

To make him obnoxious to the Roman authorities, the Pharisees sent certain of their disciples, with the Herodians, which should feign themselves just men that they might take hold of his words, in order to deliver him unto

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the power and authority of the governor. And they asked him, saying, "Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the persons of any, but teachest the way of God truly is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cæsar or no?" But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, "Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny whose image and superscription hath it?" They answered and said, "Cæsar's." And he said unto them, "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar's, and unto God the things which be God's." And they could not take hold of his words before the people : and they marvelled at his answer and held their peace. They had acknowledged Cæsar's jurisdiction by using his currency; for such was the ancient Eastern custom; and even to this day the unchangeable Chinese obliterate the image and superscription on foreign coin. They therefore, submitting to his rule, owed him tribute. And proper obedience to the powers that be, is not inconsistent with duty to God or in more general terms, that our duty to one, does not conflict with our obligations to the other. Upon the same day one of the Scribes who was a Pharisee, deputed probably by his sect, the heads of which were gathered together, asked him, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two