home or family or any life in the world. They fancy that we should all the time be thinking of the Kingdom of Heaven. But Jesus did not tell people to keep away from the world. He told men and women that the true way was rather to live in the world, but all the while to have the Kingdom of Heaven in their hearts. In that way they could do the most good. He would have them live in the world, though they should take great care not to love what was called the life of the world. And so one day he said, speaking of his disciples and himself: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I ask not that they should be kept from the world, but only that they should be kept from evil. Jesus liked so much to talk about love and fellowfeeling. It is so beautiful to know this, and to think about it. All that he had to say could be put in that And so one time he said to them: This is my commandment that ye love one another even as I have loved you. one word. Yet he had One last noble thought, to close this chapter of beautiful sayings! It was the great point in all the teachings of Jesus. We see how it is that men and women know what is right and yet often will do what is wrong. Possibly it was on that account that Jesus seemed to think less merely of teaching. He wanted so much to have men good in the heart. talked a great deal in the course of his few work. Then one day he said to them: these things, blessed are ye that do them. go on repeating it to ourselves as we think of all those beautiful sayings of Jesus: If ye know these things, blessed are ye that do them. months of If ye know And we JERUSALEM. "The messiah has come," had been the saying everywhere just after the Sermon on the Mount. But many had not at that time quite seen the meaning of those words. Now after two years there were a few who at last were able to understand what was implied by this new teaching. They had not accepted it at first. They had been so filled with that other idea of a kingdom; they did so much want that Jesus might be both kinds of a King, and found both kinds of a kingdom. He had succeeded at last in persuading some of them to give up that desire. They still, perhaps, only understood him in part. But whatever was to happen, they were ready to take him for their Prince; although they knew by this time that it meant something quite different from what they had at first supposed. We do not know how many there were who had begun to think of his teachings in that way. Those who had lived with him during this time, traveled about with him over the country, walked with him along those beaten paths, up the hills and down into the valleys- they could not help but love him and trust him. They were ready to say now: "We believe; this shall be the teaching by which we will live; it shall be the lesson we will carry to others; this must be the Prince we have been looking for so long. He is the true messiah." There were also many others who had dimly caught the words, but not really understood what he said to them; they had endured so much, had been hungry and cold so often, they were hardly able to think. But they remembered how he had laid his hands on their shoulders and been so tender and kind! Was it possible for them to doubt him, after having felt that hand of tenderness, after having seen the look of his pitying eyes? He seemed to have been unhappy just because they were unhappy. They believed him more now because they loved him, although they still perhaps hoped that he would found their kind of a kingdom. They were won to his teachings because he had been such a Brother of Mercy. They too said: "He is our prince; this must be the messiah." That was The people now began to wonder whether he would get the people of Jerusalem to accept him. their great city. King David had lived there long centuries ago, when they had had a great nation. Their rulers had their palaces there; more than all, they knew that their great temple was there. When ever in former times they had dreamed of the coming of the new King, they always thought first how he would "restore Jerusalem." They did so love their great city! Jesus, however, knew what was coming. While his friends all about him were thinking that soon the whole country would accept him, while they were picturing to themselves a glorious triumph for him in Jerusalem; he, alone in his thoughts, was making ready for the end of his life. He knew there was to be no glorious triumph such as they were dreaming of. He had been in that city before. He knew that Jerusalem would never accept his thought of the true kingdom. The people there wanted the other kind. He remembered the fate of many other great teachers how they had been persecuted and finally been put to death. He felt sure that this would also happen to him. Jerusalem did not want that form of a messiah. |