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 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 speak thus against the Holy Spirit, was an offence which could not be forgiven.

Matt. xii. 22.

Mark iii. 19.

Luke xi. 14.

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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.

136

CHAPTER XI.

SECOND TOUR THROUGH GALILEE THE TWELVE

APOSTLES APPOINTED - JOHN'S MESSAGE

то

JESUS -JESUS GOES UP TO THE FEAST OF

DEDICATION AT JERUSALEM.

WE return to the regular train of the narrative. Jesus had passed but a 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 devote themselves to their work without anxiety. On the part of these ladies, this seems

Matthew ix. 35. Luke viii. 1.

to have been the offering of gratitude for the exercise of his miraculous power in their behalf. They had been "healed by him of evil spirits and infirmities." To Mary Magdalene he had been a peculiar benefactor. Joanna was the wife of Herod's steward; probably, therefore, a person of some consequence. Of Susanna and the others nothing special is known. But the names of these faithful friends, who sought to promote the comfort of their benefactor during his laborious life, who forsook him not when in shame and suffering, and who affectionately watched at his tomb, deserve to be recorded to their everlasting honor. They could not go abroad and preach his gospel, like Peter and James; but they did what they could, while he lived and when he died, with tender and persevering fidelity. They gave him their time, their property, their affections, and their tears; and they have put to shame the coldness of many among his modern followers, who know more of his real glory than they did, and yet are backward to sacrifice any thing in his cause.

It was about this time, either just before commencing this new journey or soon after its commencement, that he selected from among his disciples the twelve apostles. This was a great and Mark iii. 13. Luke vi. 12.

Matt. x. 1.

important step. He needed assistants in his ministry, for he was unable to go every where himself, and yet it was important that many places should be visited. He knew too, that he should continue to labor but a short time, and that it was necessary to make provision for carrying on and completing his work after he should be taken away. Having this object in view, Luke tells us, that he retired to a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. When it was morning, he called together the disciples, and from among them chose twelve; — undoubtedly men who had been acquainted with him, and whom he thoroughly knew. Four of them, Andrew, Peter, John, and Philip, had been attached to him from the very beginning of his ministry, and the first James from an early period. Matthew was, like himself, a citizen of Capernaum. The other six are not named in the Gospels until now. Two of them, Thomas, the incredulous, and Judas the traitor, became conspicuous in the history of their Master's life. James, the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, or Judas, his brother, were afterwards distinguished as writers of Epistles. The other two are less known. Their names were Bartholomew and Simon.

These are the men who devoted their lives to Christ, and through whom his religion was pre