self and his disciples for plucking and eating a few ears of corn as they passed through the fields. On this occasion it was that he stated his doctrine on the subject in these emphatic words: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

But what is yet more remarkable, and shows strikingly both their superstition and their enmity, he was obliged to defend even his miracles against this charge of Sabbath-breaking. It was his healing a man on the Sabbath which formed the pretence for the first violent assault on him in Jerusalem. The same circumstance was alleged against him when he healed the man born blind, at the feast of Pentecost. So far was this irrational opposition carried, that when he had done an act of benevolence in the synagogue on that day, the ruler of the synagogue cried out to the people, with great displeasure: "There are six days in which men ought to work; in these, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." "Thou hypocrite," said Jesus; "doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to water? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound,

John v. 9, ix.

Luke xiii. 10.
Mark iii. 1.

Matthew xii. 9.

Luke vi. 6.

lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" At this reply, all his adversaries were ashamed, says Luke; as well they might be. On another occasion, when he knew that the Pharisees were watching him, he put the same question before doing the miracle; and when they made him no reply, it is not strange that "he looked round on them with indignation, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts." What more likely to give indignant grief to a pure and benevolent mind, than to perceive the best actions misconstrued and perverted by bitter and malignant prejudice? Instead of allowing themselves to be convinced, the Pharisees thought only of revenge; and went out and held a council against him.

It was through such opposition as this, gratuitous and unprincipled, that our Lord was compelled to pursue his trying way. Perhaps it was never more disheartening than when these men attributed his miracles to Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. That he wrought the miracles, they could not deny; but, instead of allowing in them the hand of God, they chose to explain them away by attributing them to demoniacal power. This argued an obstinacy in unbelief, a determined hardness of heart, which must render them incapable of being convinced. It was the highest

Matthew xii. 22. Mark iii. 19.

Luke xi. 14.

degree of wilful blindness and depravity. Therefore, after showing how absurd it was to suppose that the evil spirits would furnish him with power to destroy themselves, he went on to show the hopelessness of that mind which could make such a suggestion. If they had spoken against himself, he said, it would have been pardonable; but to ascribe his miraculous works to evil spirits, and thus despise the Divine agency which was manifest in them, was an offence which could not be forgiven.

It aggravated the sin, and rendered it a greater grief to the feeling mind of Jesus, that these men were at the same time calling upon him to show them some sign. "Master, we would see a sign from thee." As if all his wonderful works had not been sign enough; as if they were willing to believe, provided he would only give them sufficient evidence. To such calls for evidence, made in such a spirit, he had but one reply. It was such a reply as their perverseness and hypocrisy deserved. He referred them, darkly, under the image of Jonah in the fish, to his future burial and resurrection; and proceeded to upbraid in severe terms their incredulity and impenitence.

When we thus observe the manner and spirit in which these men set themselves in opposition to our Lord, we are not surprised that he often spoke of them with severity, and took pains to

unmask them to the people. He did this even at their own tables. He rebuked them and expostulated with them to their faces. He exposed them in their true character to the people. He directed against them many of his most solemn parables. And in expressing his abhorrence of their hollow-heartedness, pride, and oppression, all indulged under the sanctimonious appearance of religion, he used words of indignation which on no other occasion escaped his gentle lips.

WE return to the regular train of the narrative. Jesus had passed but few days in Capernaum and its vicinity, when he left it for the purpose of making another circuit among the towns and villages of Galilee. This was probably in a different direction from the former, and he was differently accompanied. With the increased attention which had been drawn to his ministry, the number of his devoted friends and permanent attendants had been constantly augmenting; and when he now started forth on an excursion through the country, we find him not only accompanied, as before, by a promiscuous crowd, but by persons of rank and name. Among these were several female friends, who, it is said, "ministered to him of their substance," and through whose kind attentions and charities he and his disciples were enabled to