surrounded Him in this place, asking Him to say plainly if He were the Christ, or Messiah, probably with the hope that He would claim this kingly title, and so lay Himself open to an accusation before Pilate. The Lord's reply afforded them no such ground, but He uttered words which excited their fiercest anger. Again they took up stones to stone Him; but He escaped out of their hands, and left Jerusalem to enter it but once more.

Jesus now withdrew altogether from Judea, into the place beyond Jordan, where John had at first baptized. It was in the same valley, beside the same river, where He had spent the first summer of His public life, whilst John was still alive, and teaching and baptizing not far from Him. Only twelve months had passed since He had left that quiet retreat, to enter upon a career full of change, of wanderings, of increasing difficulties and dangers. His enemies had laid wait for Him; had never wearied of hunting Him from place to place; had three times attempted His life at the feasts. His own kinsmen did not fully believe in Him; His numerous friends were bewildered and disatisfied; and His disciples, though still faithful to Him, were disappointed, and looked anxiously into the future. It was wintry weather; the sky was heavy with clouds, and storms swept across the land. The summer seemed also to have faded out of His life; all that gladness with which His God had crowned Him above His fellows. Poor, homeless, and an exile; rich only in the friendship of a few fisherman

and peasants who made themselves homeless and exiles for His sake with a traitor always at His side, and a host of deadly foes conspiring against Him: thus Jesus passed the last winter of His life.

Whilst He was in Perea many people came to Him, who remembered what John the Baptist had said of Him. John had not yet been dead twelve months, and the anger of the people against Herod had not died away. Many of them believed on Jesus, as He went about, according to His custom, from village to village, teaching, in homely parables, which took firm hold of the minds and memories of His hearers. Very possibly the Pharisees sought to get Herod to arrest Him; but this he dared not do, so unpopular had he become by the murder of John. They tried, therefore, to frighten Jesus back into Judea, and they came to Him with a warning. 'Get thee out, and depart hence,' they said, 'for Herod will kill thee.' But Jesus had certain work to do in that country, and He was not to be driven from it by their cunning or Herod's. One of the miracles He wrought at this time in Perea was in the house of one of the chief Pharisees of that neighbourhood, where He had been invited, that they might watch Him. It was the Sabbath day, and a man was set before Him afflicted with dropsy. As usual, Jesus did not hesitate to heal him, the lawyers and Pharisees finding nothing to say against His doing So. After this He gave both to the guests and to His host certain rules concerning feasts, which were very

different from those usually observed. To this period

also belong the parables of the Great Supper, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, the Unjust Steward, and the Rich Man and Lazarus.

CHAPTER XV.

LAZARUS.

LAZARUS, that name which Jesus had given to the poor beggar carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, was also the name of a friend whom He loved dearly, and of whom His mind was at this moment full. About the same time that the Pharisees had come to Him with their cunning stratagem to drive Him into Judea, there had reached Him a message from the home in Bethany: 'Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.' Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, did not, because they could not, urge their Lord to come to them. The peril was great. Nay, if He had gone at once He would have fallen into the very snare His enemies had laid for Him. He stayed, therefore, two days where He was, teaching the people as usual, and betraying no design of leaving that place. But on the third day, when the danger was somewhat passed by, though His disciples still remonstrated with Him for venturing again to Judea, He set out for Bethany. Thomas, the most timid and

L

doubtful of the disciples, said to his companions, in a despair which proves the strength of his attachment to his master, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him.'

It was a toilsome journey, hurriedly and secretly taken. The disciples, like other men in a country of foes, must have been anxious and uneasy, not altogether seeing the necessity of this new peril. The Lord Himself was probably troubled and sorrowful, for He knew that Lazarus was dead, and He sympathized with the grief of his sisters. On the fourth day after his death He reached the village, but did not enter it, only sending a message to the sisters that He had come. The house was filled with Jews from Jerusalem, which was only two miles away, and Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was near, rose up, and went out to meet Him, lest He should be unaware of the risk He was running. But Mary was too deeply sunk in sorrow even to hear that He who loved them was so close at hand. It was not until He sent Martha to her, who told her secretly, 'The Master is come, and calleth for thee,' that she knew He was there.

Mary did not possess Martha's characteristic caution and prudence. She rose up quickly, and hurried to seek Jesus outside the town where He was staying, without attempting to conceal her movements. A number of the Jews followed her, thinking she was going to her brother's grave to weep there. The whole company, weeping and mourning, came to the place where Jesus was waiting for