fashion much superior to John's. Jesus had been right after all in those simple and profoundly human conceptions of life, on which thirty years of lowly toil at Nazareth had set their seal. John came fasting; it was the distinguishing feature of his austerity; Jesus and His disciples came eating and drinking. John preached amid the deserts of Judea; Jesus henceforth turns His steps to the pleasant shores of Galilee. John is a recluse; Jesus is the Friend and Brother, easily accessible, eminently sociable. The break in practice is henceforth complete and irreparable. Asceticism had been tried and found wanting; it has never since been revived save to the injury of religion and the degradation of society.

CHAPTER IV

THE OPENING SCENES

THE Lake of Galilee, toward which Jesus directed His steps after His sojourn in the Judean desert, was already familiar to Him, and it is probable that He entertained for it the kind of love which the dalesman has for his own remote and sheltered valley. It is a sheet of exquisitely blue and clear water, about thirteen miles in length by a quarter of a mile in breadth. Josephus describes the whole district as a terrestrial paradise, laying stress upon the tempered delicacy of its air, the fertility of its soil, and the natural attractions of its beauty. The modern traveler may flatter himself that his eye rests upon the same outlines of scenery that Christ beheld and loved; but little else remains. The thick foliage that clothed its shores has disappeared as utterly as have the gilded pinnaces of Herod or the glittering pleasure barges of the Romans which once floated on its waters. Something of the grandeur that was Rome, and the splendor that was Greece may still be conjectured in the ruins in the Forum Romanum or the Acropolis; but not a single clue remains to the former prosperity and charm of the shores of Galilee.

It was with excellent judgment that Jesus chose this district for the scene of His mission. The Galileans themselves were of a cheerful temper, and were relatively free from the arid casuistries of the various sects which struggled for preeminence in Jerusalem. They were a simple folk much engaged in fishing, and in other humble outdoor employments.

A certain leaven of cosmopolitanism had also been imparted to the common life by the Roman occupation. The great road from Jerusalem to Damascus which passed along the shores of the lake, brought a constant influx of travelers of every nationality. The Galilean fisherman, by the nature of his business, found himself brought into contact with many types of men, and especially with the Romans, of whose luxurious appetites he was the servant. Many publicans dwelt in the district, for the work of collecting the taxes in a district so crowded was heavy. These men are not to be confounded with the Roman farmers of taxes, who were usually patricians. They were humble clerks and collectors of customs chosen from the local population. The reason why they were held in scornful disesteem, or even hated, was a patriotic reason. They were accounted traitors; quite unjustly, for if taxes had to be collected, even a patriotic Jew might have reasoned that it was less insulting to the nation that the taxgatherer should be his own countryman than an alien and a pagan. This was a degree of reasonableness, however, quite beyond the average Jew, who accounted all money raised by taxation, even when taxation was most moderate and just, stolen money, and punished the Jewish customs officer accordingly by a bitter ostracism which even went so far as to deny him the right of making a will. The frank and public friendship which Christ extended to these pariahs of a bigoted patriotism must have been very grateful to their hurt pride; it healed them of their self-despisings. No doubt the attitude which Christ adopted toward them was largely dictated by a sense of the injustice of their position.

It is interesting to remember that in this busy and populous district Jesus would find Himself at all points in contact with the paganism of Rome. Wherever the Roman went

he carried with him the entire apparatus of his faith and civilization. Streets of tombs, such as lined the Appian way or the approaches to Pompeii, marked the towns and cities where the Roman power was most centralized; votive temples, and statues to Pan and to the gods, sprang up among these groves of Galilee; and upon these symbols of an alien faith the eyes of Christ must have often rested. No indication is afforded us by any word of Christ's that these monuments of art and pagan piety made the least impression on Him. On the other hand, it is clear that His relations with the Romans themselves were friendly. It was in Capernaum, one of the most lovely towns of Galilee, that Jesus met the Roman centurion, of whom He said that his faith surpassed any faith that He had met among the children of Israel. In all ages a certain simplicity of character has distinguished the soldier. Doubt and incertitude, which are the maladies of the man of thought, rarely afflict the man of action. We have already seen that the ministry of John the Baptist proved attractive to the Roman soldiers. To the teaching of Christ they were even more accessible. The Roman was too thorough a man of the world to be a bigoted believer even in his own forms of faith. He regarded all faiths with tolerance, and was ready to treat them with respect so long as they presented no menace to the civil power. The more thoughtful Roman went further than this; sceptical of much in his own religion, he was an inquirer after truth, full of ardent curiosity, and disposed to interest in any new religion. that challenged him in the lands he conquered. Thus we find that the centurion of Capernaum whom Christ praised had built a synagogue for the Jews, and among the Romans there were many men distinguished by the same fine tolerance and religious spirit.

In this district, beautiful, fertile, populous, the most cos

mopolitan of all the districts of Palestine, and therefore the best fitted for the growth of a new religion, the real ministry of Christ commenced. Its towns, utterly razed to the ground as they are to-day, were to become more famous in the general memory of man than the greatest cities of antiquity. Bethsaida, Capernaum, Magdala, have been the sources of an influence more invigorating, and greatly more vital than the influence of even Rome or Athens themselves. The words spoken in these narrow streets and beside the blue waters of this humble lake have reverberated to the utmost limits of the world. In Jerusalem Christ always felt Himself a foreigner; but here He was at home. The intellectual atmosphere of Jerusalem, arid as the hills on which the city stood, dulled the spontaneity and freshness of His thought; but here He spoke always with the accent of joyous inspiration. Among these simple Galileans He found the friends dearest to his heart, and the converts who did most for His memory. Peter and Andrew his brother were fishermen of the lake. Zebedee, another fisherman, received Him gladly; his two sons, James and John, became apostles, and his wife, Salome, was with Jesus at Calvary. Matthew was a customs officer of Capernaum; Nathaniel belonged to Cana, and Philip to Bethsaida. From Magdala came Mary, who regarded Him with an adoring passion, followed Him to the cross, and was first in the Garden on the morning of the resurrection. Never in the history of the world did a single district produce so many men and women who were to become immortal in the annals of faith, piety, love, and genius. Here is the truly sacred soil of Christianity; it is to Galilee rather than Jerusalem that the pilgrim feet of men should travel.

Before Jesus definitely chose Galilee for the theatre of His exertions several things of moment happened. Although we