his miracles, surrounded him, and it was often with difficulty that he withdrew from their importunities. If he had not exercised the utmost care and prudence, they would, long before the appropriate time had arrived, have publicly declared him to be the Messianic king (see, for instance, John 6: 15).

2. But, on the other hand, he also encountered on the part of the unstable and carnal people much opposition, violent contradictions and actual persecution. They were offended when he spoke in terms of rebuke of their perverted and unbelieving mind, and declared them to be unfit to enter into the kingdom of God, or when he refused to indulge their thirst for miracles and fulfil their false Messianic hopes. They called him a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, because he did not sanction their self-righteousness and hypocrisy; and a friend of publicans and sinners, because he showed kindness to repenting sinners (Matt. 11:19). They persecuted him, and sought to slay him, because he healed on the sabbath-day (John 5: 16), and attempted to stone him (10: 31), because he called himself the Son of God. When he exposed the vanity of their dependence on their bodily descent from Abraham, they answered: "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" (John 8:48). When he reproved them, in the synagogue in Nazareth, on account of their unbelief, they were filled with wrath, and led him to the brow of the hill that they might cast him down headlong, but, passing through the midst of them, he went his way (Luke 4: 28-30).

3. Even less esteem was manifested for him in Galilee where he passed the largest portion of his time, insomuch that he himself testified: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house" (Matt. 13:57). He upbraided the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. "Wo unto thee, Chorazin! wo unto thee, you had Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained

until this day" (Matt. 11: 20-23). Even his own brethren did not, at the beginning, believe in him (John 7:5). His experience was the same in Judea; there the Jews sought to slay him (7:1). In Samaria the people of a village whither he had sent his disciples to make ready for him, would not receive him because he was going to Jerusalem, so that John and James, in their zeal, desired to command that fire from heaven should consume them (Luke 9: 52, &c.).

4. The Pharisees, to whose vast influence principally these unfavorable sentiments are ascribable, were his most determined enemies. His miracles, which they could not deny, proceeded, as they alleged, from the devil: "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." It was in vain that Christ exhibited the absurdity of this charge, and urged them to beware of the sin against the Holy Ghost, which "shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come" (Matt. 12: 24-32. See the OBS. below). They sent officers to take him, and when these, deeply moved by his words, returned without bringing him, they angrily said: "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” And when Nicodemus, on the same occasion, ventured to defend his Master, they said to him: "Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (John 7:45, &c.). They agreed to put all out of the synagogue who confessed that he was the Messiah (John 9 : 22), and nothing but fear of the people, who were still influenced at times to offer praise to Christ with enthusiasm, prevented them from adopting more violent The Sadducees, on the other hand, self-satisfied, and in their unbelief yielding to the pride of human reason, took no interest in Christ, and it is only at a late period that they seek him in order to obtain an opportunity for displaying their trivial wit (§ 148. 4).

measures.

OBS. As the sin against the Holy Ghost can be forgiven neither in this life nor in the life to come, and as, nevertheless, God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2: 4; Ezek. 33: 11; 2 Pet. 3:9); it can be no other than a deliberate and obstinate hardening of the heart against the

grace of God in Christ which is manifested to man. It is termed a sin against the Holy Ghost, because the communication and the appropriation of grace occur through the Holy Ghost. The Pharisees were at least drawing near to the commission of this sin, for while they alleged that the miracles of Christ proceeded from the devil, they hardened themselves consciously and wickedly against the testimony of the Spirit of God who furnished them with incontestable evidence that these miracles were divine.

§ 145. The Transfiguration of Christ.

1. The nearer the time was in which the Redeemer's work should be completed by his death and resurrection, the more was his holy soul occupied with these events, which originated in the purest and most perfect love. He had previously given his disciples occasional intimations only respecting this termination of his earthly labors. But during his last abode in Galilee, he told them plainly and distinctly "that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things-and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matt. 16: 21). Then the Lord encountered a new temptation, stronger perhaps than the first to which he was exposed at the commencement of his ministry, because it came from a beloved disciple, and was apparently a manifestation of the most tender love. For Peter (the same disciple who had, with invincible faith, just made the confession: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and whom, in view of it, the Lord had pronounced to be blessed and had denominated the man who is as a rock, § 131. 3, ОBS.) now took him aside, and said: "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee." But the Saviour recognized in this manifestation of carnal love the influence of Satan, and said to Peter: "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt. 16:23).

2. Matt. 17: 1, &c. (Mark 9 : 2, &c.; Luke 9: 28, &c.). Six days afterwards, Jesus took Peter, James and John, and brought them up into a high mountain apart (mount Tabor, according to tradition). Here the disciples fell asleep. When they awoke, Jesus was transfigured before them; his face shone as the sun, his raiment was white as the light, and Moses and Elias

[Elijah] who were with him, spoke concerning his approaching death. Peter, transported with the blessedness of this heavenly view, exclaimed: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." While he yet spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." The disciples fell on their face and worshipped, and when Jesus raised them up, the visitants had disappeared. He charged the disciples to tell the vision to no man until he was risen again from the dead. He added certain instructions respecting the fulfilment of prophecy (Mal. 4 : 5, § 109. 3), and said that Elias truly should first come, and restore all things (for the Lord's second appearance unto judgment), but that, already at his first appearance in lowliness, an Elias had appeared in John the Baptist.

OBS.-The baptism of the Redeemer introduced the first division of the labors belonging to his office; the second was introduced by his transfiguration. On both occasions he received the same testimony of his Sonship and of his acceptableness on high. At his baptism, he announced his resolution to “fulfil all righteousness;" at his transfiguration he spoke with Moses and Elias concerning his sufferings and death (Luke 9: 31). During the period intervening between his baptism and the present event, it was specially his active obedience which had been approved, but it was henceforth his passive obedience which should be specially manifested. As the transfiguration glances retrospectively at the commencement of his work, so too, it glances prospectively at its completion, namely, the resurrection. The way is now in the course of being prepared for the glorification of his earthly human nature, which was perfected in his resurrection. The power with which, after his sufferings, he subdued death and corruption, dwelt in him from the beginning, but it is now only that it shines forth through the dark veil of the flesh as a type and pledge of a future complete and abiding glorification. Moses and Elias, the fathers of the old covenant, the representatives of the law and of prophecy, here receive the joyful tidings concerning the fulfilment of all the institutions of salvation belonging to the Old Testament; the three disciples of Jesus, the fathers of the Christian Church, the representatives of the different Christian tendencies (? 131. 3, ОвS.), here recognize the unity of the old and new covenants, and the connection between the

earthly and the heavenly kingdom of God. As the transfiguration or glorification of Christ was still incomplete, and could not be understood until it was completed, he charged the disciples to tell no man of it, until his resurrection had occurred.

§ 146. The Anointing in Bethany.

John 12: 1, &c. (Matt. 26 : 6, &c.; Mark 14: 3, &c). Christ entered Jerusalem the third and last time during his public ministry, for the purpose of keeping the passover. He reached Bethany, which was scarcely two miles distant from Jerusalem, six days before the festival. While he sat at meat in the house of Simon the leper, Martha, who was connected with the family, served her revered Master at the table, and Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, appeared as one of the guests. Then Mary, who had undoubtedly heard those discourses of the Lord in which he made frequent mention of his approaching death, impelled by a presentiment which her love had quickened, took a vessel filled with costly ointment of spikenard, poured it on the Redeemer's head, anointed his feet, and wiped them with her hair. Judas Iscariot expressed his dissatisfaction that so large a sum of money had been needlessly wasted, as he alleged, and not given to the poor; the other disciples, who did not suspect that thievish habits and a thirst for money had suggested these thoughts to him who had charge of the common purse, concurred with Judas, without being governed by his motives. But the Lord defended the act of Mary, which was an expression of the most tender and thoughtful love. "Let her alone," he said: "against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." Then Judas went to the chief priests, and said: "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" They offered him thirty pieces of silver (the price of a slave, Exod. 21:32), but did not consider that thereby they fulfilled, against their will, that which was written concerning Christ (Zech. 11: 12-14). From that time Judas sought opportunity to betray him.