The Gospel According to Matthew

By G. Campbell Morgan

Chapter 4

Chapter 4:1-25

MATTHEW IV.1-11 (Mat 4:1-11)

WE have now to consider the King in His relation to the great under-world of evil, and to its god, "the prince of the power of the air." The King has come, not merely to reign. There is an initial work devolving upon Him-that of subduing the Kingdom to Himself. He does not enter into a Kingdom waiting for Him, responsive to His claim. He comes to a Kingdom characterized by anarchy and rebellion. In God's economy of the Kingdom, a. Man is to be King. But this Man, if indeed He is to receive the Kingdom, and reign over it, must be demonstrated as personally victorious over these forces of antagonism, by victory over the master foe. The King has been attested as being in perfect harmony with the order and beauty of the heavens, in the word that God spoke at His baptism, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." But He is now to face the disorder and the ugliness of the abyss. Goodness at its highest He knows, and is. Evil at its lowest He must face, and overcome.

The subject reveals Him to us in three ways: first, as perfect Man; secondly, as Man demonstrated perfect through testing; and finally, as Man victorious, and therefore fitted for supremacy.

I. In this story of the temptation, the King is revealed as perfect Man. Turning our attention for a moment from the enemy and his method, and fixing it upon the Person of Jesus, we see in the background, not distinctly described, but most evidently present, God's ideal of humanity. This is brought out in the threefold movement of temptation.

This temptation is an orderly temptation, if we may use such a word in speaking of any method of hell; it is utterly disorderly in the profounder sense; but it is a scientific and systematic attack upon a Man. It is this we need to see. These temptations are not the swift, sudden, subtle, insidious temptations that sweep upon men. Our Lord faced such also; but these constitute an organized and systematic attack upon a man in every department of his life.

Mark in one brief glance the order of the temptations. First, an appeal to the physical nature-bread; secondly, an appeal to the spiritual nature trust in God; finally an appeal to the vocational purpose-Here are the Kingdoms of the world for which Thou hast come, take them from me.

In that glance there stands revealed in all the sombre shade, and yet the vivid light of the wilderness, God's Man. What is man? Physical and spiritual in being; yet existing, not merely for the sake of existence, but for a purpose. Material, spiritual, vocational. In this order Matthew records the temptations.

We see Jesus in this first temptation as of the earth. He is of the material order, consciously realizing all the facts of the material life, its limitations and its necessities. He depends upon the material for the sustenance of the material side of His nature; He is a Man Who fasts for a long time, but afterwards becomes conscious of His hunger. Superior, in His material nature, to all the material order; able for a period not to eat; yet needing to eat eventually in order to the sustenance of His life. That is the first fact about man, any man. There are differences between this Man and other men, because others are not perfect men; they are members of a ruined and fallen race. This Man is a perfect Man according to the Divine pattern, but in the essential facts of being He is our Kinsman. We are children of the earth, and the first thing we come into contact with, if we meet each other, is the material. We do not know the spiritual fact of the man we meet in the street. We must get nearer to him before we can know that. Here in the wilderness is Jesus of Nazareth-of the dust, but crowned and glorified; yet, dust as every man is. Man on his physical side is the highest and final fact in God's material creation, superior to everything else; rising over every form of life, master of the rest, regnant in the midst of a magnificent creation, of which he is the consummation and culmination. The physical side is temporal, transient; but it is essential to this strange and marvellous thing which we speak of as human nature.

In the second of these temptations we see Jesus, no longer of the earth, material; but of the infinite, spiritual. In that spiritual nature He is conscious of God, seeks to know the will of God, is submissive to the spiritual order, yields to the law of God.

On the material side He is of the earth, and something of the earth is needed to sustain Him-bread. On the spiritual side He is of the infinite, and something of the infinite is needed to sustain Him. Thus here we see a Man, physical and spiritual, but the spiritual is the deepest fact in His life, as it is the deepest fact in every life. The physical is temporary, transient, and passing; the spiritual is the abiding and the supreme.

Then once again, in the third temptation, Jesus is seen as existing for a purpose. He was born to serve. He was equipped in His being for service. He knew that service could only be rendered as He worshipped God. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."

Here, then, is revealed the Man Whom God ordained to be King-God's archetypal Man, the perfect Man-and as we look at Him we see that the supreme end of life is vocation; that the essence of life is spiritual; that the present expression of the spiritual fact and vocation is physical. Temptation commences in the external, which is physical; passes to the internal, which is spiritual; attacks finally the vocational, which is the supreme thing in the life of every man. This is the picture of human life, according to the purpose of God.

The government of such beings is placed by God in the authority of One of them; but the King must be unimpaired in realization of the Divine Ideal. A man who has failed at any point cannot govern men. He cannot govern those who have not failed, and he certainly cannot redeem those who have failed. A man who has prostituted his physical nature to base uses; a man who has silenced and stifled and dwarfed his spiritual nature; a man who has failed to realize his vocation, cannot be king. An imperfect being cannot demand our loyalty; we cannot be loyal to inferiority; we cannot bow the knee and worship in the presence of anything other than perfection. That is only one side of the great story.

See it from the other side, and in view of the fact with which we commenced this study that the King has first to subdue to Himself a Kingdom full of anarchy and rebellion. He cannot do it if there be anarchy in His own personality. If there be failure in His own life, His arm is paralysed, His heart lacks courage, and He cannot redeem. There must be the perfection of humanity in order to reign over humanity.

II. Therefore, in order to reign, the perfect One must be demonstrated perfect through testing.

Here we touch the deepest mystery and majesty of human nature. The awful and yet magnificent responsibility of choice is imposed upon every individual. Man stands in his probation between two possibilities. He can use his whole nature in response to evil, or to good, both in the material and spiritual realms, for evil and good assault and woo him.

Again we are bound to pause and make a distinction between the perfect Man and ourselves. It is still true that we are called to choose between evil and good, but we start in life, and find that when the choice is presented to us we would do the good, but evil is present with us; and that perpetually in our life, we want to choose the good, and would choose it, but the force and passion of evil and the feebleness resulting therefrom are in us, and we cannot. Some man says, That is exactly the truth. That is what I want explained in my case. What am I to do? In answer-"Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly," and while in our own unaided strength, the strength of the nature into which we were born, we cannot do good; in the strength and victory that this Man won, and the work He did, we can choose and do the good if we will, and there is no reason why any man should continue in sin.

But let us get back to Jesus in the wilderness. He stood alone. There were no forces burning within Him which He could not overcome. He occupied the position which was occupied by the first Adam before he failed.

Standing there, with a perfect Manhood in the presence of temptation, He must be tested, and make His choice between the good and the evil.

The first purpose of the enemy is the spoiling of the instrument of expression. He appeals to the physical, he appeals to the material, he appeals to that external fact in the Person of Jesus, through which impressions are received by the spirit, and through which the spirit for a while is to express itself. The occasion of the testing is the proper desire for sustenance. This Man felt the clamant cry of the physical, for material sustenance. Here was His infirmity.

What is an infirmity? We are told by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews that "we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." What are these infirmities? A man with an atrociously bad temper says, That is my infirmity. That is not so; that uncontrolled temper is sin. A man with some evil habit, for which he blames his father, says, That is my infirmity. It is not; it is sin. An infirmity is a weakened power that requires strengthening. You go forth to toil and work, and presently there comes to you the sense of hunger. That is an infirmity. Oh, you say, I always thought hunger was a sign of strength. No, it is a sign of weakened strength, a beneficent, beautiful sign, a sign that you are in health, a sign that God is still governing your life, at least on the physical side. Your hunger is the voice that says, Supply sustenance, and the thing that makes you need sustenance is that the physical part of you is weakened for the moment. That is your infirmity. That weakening is the avenue through which temptation comes; it presents itself to the clamant cry of a weakened power, properly weakened through exercise. And a man who never weakens his powers is wasting his life; a man who never takes the force that is in him and uses it until it grows a little flaccid and nerves give way, is wasting his life. Yet that weakened power is the opportunity of temptation.

Now, what is the testing? It is as though the enemy had said: There is an inter-relation between the two sides of Thy nature. The physical is hungry; but Thou art the Son of God, Thou art offspring of God, Thou art kin of God; there is in Thee this spiritual entity. Turn Thy spiritual nature into a means of satisfying Thy material need without reference to the will of God. If Thou art the Son of God, if Thou hast a spiritual nature, use that power in order to turn stones into bread, and satisfy Thy physical need. Act for Thyself, prove Thy Sonship by Thy independence.

The perfection of the Man Jesus is demonstrated in His refusal. Hunger was not wrong; bread was not an improper thing; but Jesus stands for evermore in the isolated splendour of the wilderness saying to man; It is better to be hungry than to be fed without reference to the will of God. I cannot, He says, take hold of a spiritual capacity, and use it for the supply of a proper physical need, without reference to the will of My Father. I cannot act in independence as a Son; the essence of Sonship is obedience; and if for the moment the circumstances into which the Spirit has led Me necessitate My hunger, then I will do nothing to alter the Divine condition and surrounding. I do not live only by bread; man lives also by the word of God-that which conditions His life. And so in the first temptation against the physical He is victorious.

Next came the test of the spiritual. What is the purpose here? If, in the first, it was the spoliation of the instrument, here it is the ruin of the essential.

The occasion of the test of the spiritual is the strain which has just been put upon the spiritual relationship by the choice made to suffer hunger by faith in God. The material victory was a spiritual victory. And in the moment of that victory what happened? A Man feeling all the pangs of hunger, all the weariness of weakness, said; I choose the hunger, and choose the weakness, because, essentially, I am not material, but spiritual. And the hunger continues, and there is a strain put upon relationship; and as the strain is put upon relationship the tempter comes again, and says, "If Thou art the Son of God."

The suggestion is that He should make improper use of the relation between the spiritual essence, and the physical mode of expression; that He should take the instrument, and venture something heroic in demonstration of the perfection of His spiritual nature. It is as though the enemy had said to the perfect Man, You have declared your allegiance in response to my first temptation; you have declared your trust in God; very well; if you do trust Him, venture something on your trust; do something heroic; do something splendid; show how much you trust in God by flinging yourself from the pinnacle of the temple.

The moment a man begins to tempt God, to prove trust; he proves that he does not trust. The moment a man begins to do something heroic to demonstrate trust, he gives evidence that trust is lacking. Perfect trust is quiet, and waits. Trust trembling, wants to do something heroic to make it steady. Jesus said, No, My trust is so perfect that I need to do nothing heroic to prove it. "Thou shalt not tempt." The spiritual nature retained its dignity; He refused to do anything spectacular.

Finally, the temptation moved into the last realm. Its purpose was the prevention of the accomplishment of the work of the King. Its occasion was the consciousness of victory already won, and the consequent new flaming of the supreme passion to serve. The moment you have won a great victory, in the power of the victory won, you want to be doing. Jesus had won a victory in the physical realm, and had won a victory in the spiritual realm. Now the enemy came again and said: Well, you have won, you have not failed as an instrument; now here is your work; here are the kingdoms of the world; you have come for them; give me one moment's homage, and I will abdicate. What a lie it was!

Did he imagine for a moment that he could deceive Immaculate Purity this way? He was a liar from the beginning, and he never lied more directly. I will give Thee the kingdoms! Never would he have done so. That was the tempting bait. Jesus saw the kingdoms, and their glory, but He saw all the permeating influence of evil and destruction, and He knew-had He not consented to it in baptism?-that these kingdoms could only be won by blood and suffering, and death. And with the voice of quiet authority, He said, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve," which is to say, My vocational power is assured under the Divine Government, and I abide there. I will take these kingdoms from God, in God's way. In His answer there is a prophecy, a flaming prophecy. "Get thee hence." Thou dost offer Me the kingdoms if I will give thee homage; I will take the kingdoms by turning thee out: "Get thee hence, Satan!" Thus the King is demonstrated perfect by victory.

III. The great value of all this is discovered as it is remembered that the victory was won wholly within the sphere of human life. To every assault of evil He has answered wholly as Man. There is no obtrusion of Deity into the conflict. The law He quoted was man's law, and in human obedience to that law, He has won.

But His victory was the victory of a Man with God. Every man by original design and creation is offspring of God, and has certain claims on God. Man can urge his claim on God if he fulfils the law of God. Jesus fulfilled the law, and urged His claim, and in communion with God, He won His victory.

And yet, thank God, His victory was won not only as Man, and as Man with God, but for men. To defeat the victor is to save the vanquished, and one reads that one brief sentence at the close, that makes one's soul thrill with music-"the devil leaveth Him."

Thus the great personal conflict is over. There are other battles to be fought and won, but they will be in more direct sense representative and redeeming. Never again will the foe directly attack Him, and in the open. The attack was made against every vul nerable point hunger, trust, and responsibility and when these are held, there remains no other avenue through which the foe can assault the citadel of the human will. The need of material sustenance, the spirit's confidence in God, and the carrying out of a Divine commission in a Divine way, these are all the avenues. The King has held every one. His defeated foe now leaves Him, and the King in personal life, and character, and victory, holds the field.

MATTHEW IV. 12-25 (Mat 4:12-25)

IT is quite plain that between verses 11 and 12 there is a gap in the chronology. It is interesting and remarkable, that the three evangelists, whom we describe as synoptists, omit a section of the public ministry of Jesus, covering twelve months. There can be no doubt that such a period of time elapsed between verses 11 and 12, in this fourth chapter of Matthew. We read, "Then the devil leaveth Him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto Him;" and immediately following, "Now when He heard that John was delivered up"-that is, when John was arrested and imprisoned-"He withdrew into Galilee."

Although we are studying the Gospel of Matthew, it will not be out of place, and certainly not lacking in interest, if we attempt to fill up the gap, in order that we may know what happened in the ministry of Jesus.

Coming back from the wilderness, and from His temptation, Jesus seems to have lingered in the neighbourhood of John's ministry for at least three days. On the first day, He stood amongst the crowd unrecognized by them, but discovered by John. On that first day John said, "In the midst of you standeth One Whom ye know not." On the second day, for some purpose, Jesus moved through the crowd towards John himself, and John saw Him coming to him, and then made his great pronouncement, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! "On the third day, Jesus was again seen by John, but walking away; and as He went. John cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God," and immediately two at least of John's disciples left him, and followed Jesus. On the first day, John spoke of the perfect Person-"In the midst of you standeth One Whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of Whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." On the second day he spoke of the perfect Propitiation-"The Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" On the last day he spoke of the perfect Pattern-"The Lamb of God."

Immediately following this, Jesus turned to John's disciples who came after Him, and said, "What seek ye?" One of them replied by asking, "Rabbi, where abidest Thou?" And He said, "Come and ye shall see." And they followed Him. One of them was Andrew. The other is not named. Andrew immediately found Simon his brother, and brought him to Jesus. And Jesus "findeth Philip." Whether He knew him before or not, we cannot tell, but He sought him and found him. And "Philip findeth Nathanael." That group constituted the first nucleus of disciples.

But we are not yet at the point in the history which Matthew records. The disciples and Jesus went to Cana of Galilee. Jesus went as. a guest. It was a purely social function. He tarried for two or three days down in Capernaum, and then went on to Jerusalem; presented Himself in the Temple; and cleansed it. This was His official presentation to the rulers of His people. Then we have an account of His conversation with Nicodemus, after which He left the metropolis and came into Judaea. John was still pursuing his ministry, and "baptizing in AEnon near to Salim, because there was much water there." Jesus preached in Judaea, and baptized (though He did not baptize personally, but His disciples for Him).

Thus He did not commence to exercise His definitely official ministry as King until John's ministry ended, through his arrest. These things that John records for us are of value, but they have a peculiar relation to the message of John.

In this Gospel of Matthew all these matters are omitted. Matthew, writing the Gospel of the Kingdom, after having presented the person of the King, takes up the story at the point where, the message of the herald having been silenced by his arrest and imprisonment, Jesus began His official work as King, proclaiming His Kingdom prior to enunciating its laws and exhibiting its benefits.

In this paragraph we have the account of the initial work in the proclamation of the Kingdom ; the propaganda of the King commences.

There are three movements to notice in this brief passage. First, Jesus came down into Capernaum, and took up His residence there, and began to utter the fundamental note of His Kingly ministry-"Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."Then Jesus gathered a nucleus of men, for purposes of co-operation with Him.

The rest of the paragraph is occupied with a very brief and yet beautiful statement of the remarkable success attending the initial ministry of the King.

His residence in Capernaum is in itself remarkable, demanding attention. Why did Jesus come to Capernaum of all other places? Matthew, who is perpetually tracing the connection between the ministry of Jesus and the great prophecies of the past, distinctly says that "He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,

Toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

The people that sat in darkness Saw a great light,

And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death,

To them did light spring up."

Now let us go back to the prophecy of Isaiah. In ch. ix.1 (Isa 9:1) we read:

"But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time hath He made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined."

In the consideration of the beginning of our Gospel we saw how Matthew quoted from Isaiah with regard to the virgin birth of our Lord; "The virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son." The prophecy begins with the promise of the virgin conception and ends here with the Child born, and the government placed upon His shoulders; and constitutes a complete unveiling of the Divine purpose. The prophet Isaiah, standing on that mountain peak, and looking out over the mist and the darkness of his own time, saw the coming of Immanuel, God with us. He saw Immanuel go down to Zebulun and Naphtali, the lands that suffered most from the Assyrians, to the place and peoples most degraded as the result of their presence. This is not merely a geographical prophecy-it is that in a secondary sense-but it is a prophecy based upon a principle. When God visits His people for redemption, He comes where the darkness is greatest; where the peoples sit in the shadow of death. Geographically, and .according to principle, He did that very thing. Capernaum was in the despised region of the country of the chosen people known as "Galilee of the Gentiles."

And you must be a Hebrew to understand that, or at least must feel with the heart of a Hebrew. It was "a portion of the country which had been overrun more than any other by the foreign invader, and therefore known as the region and shadow of death." That was Capernaum; and Jesus began His public ministry there. He went down and dwelt in Capernaum. There was the first Christian settlement. Jesus did not go down to teach them how to obtain better social conditions, but to bring them to God. The difference is fundamental. His first word was "Repent." He did not commence where people were least likely to need it. Capernaum was His basis; His centre; the point from which He moved out to begin His preaching. The people which sat in darkness saw light; the people which sat in the region of the shadow of death saw the great light; He began His initial, Kingly ministry, in Capernaum, on the fringe of things.

If we would be partakers with Christ in work, we must go to Capernaum; to the fringe of things; to the despised countries, to the helpless districts; to the regions wrapped in the pall of a great death, and a great darkness. It was not accidentally that Christ went and dwelt in Capernaum.

But what did His coming to Capernaum mean? When He came it was a great day for Capernaum, if Capernaum had only understood it "The people that sat in darkness saw a great light. And to them that sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up." Think of it, that for a little at least, there dwelt in Capernaum the very Light of Life, the very Light of Love, the very Light of Truth. They became familiar with His form and the tones of His voice; for everywhere they crowded to Him from all the district, bringing unfit people in crowds. He was the prophet Who had lived in Nazareth through long years; now He made Capernaum His base of operations, that neglected city living under the shadow of death. When He came, men saw Life at its highest, and its best, according to a Divine Ideal; the Light of Love flashed over their sorrows and their sins; the Light of Truth illuminated the dark corners, and revealed evil things. There, in the midst of the darkness and in the midst of the need, He struck the key-note of His ministry.

That key-note was the proclamation of a great fact, and the uttering of a great call! The fact-"the Kingdom of heaven is at hand;" the call-"Repent ye." Jesus came into Capernaum, and men woke from their stupor, slumber, and degradation, and asked the meaning of the light.

He said, "the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." And while they heard Him say "the Kingdom of heaven is at hand," His own heavenly, Kingly life revealed it. Then they heard Him say, "repent," change your minds. They heard Him say, You are wrong in your surroundings because you are wrong in your heart. The darkness is on you because the darkness is in you. The Kingdom of heaven is come to you, and the Light is on you. Admit it by repentance. There was much more to say, much unveiling, much exposition, much illumination, but that was the key-note of all the message.

Then there came the necessity for something more; and we find Him calling to Himself these four men. Let us notice first, the call of the four men; secondly, the purpose for which He called them; and finally, their answer to Him.

Simon and Andrew were already personal disciples, as we see by reference to John's Gospel.

Andrew was one of John's disciples. On that third day, when Jesus had moved away and left John in order to proceed to His own work, Andrew had followed Him, and having come to the Messiah, had called Simon. In this picture in Matthew they are all fishing. This call was not to discipleship; it was the call to fellowship in service He saw them there at their work, and looking at them while they handled the net, He said, "Come ye after Me, and I will make you fishers of men." It was the call to new work; to the abandonment of everything, in order to devote themselves to Him and His work.

This is not a call that comes to every man. Every man was not called, even in the days of our Lord's earthly ministry. All men are not called now. These men were thus specially called. For a year they had been personal disciples; now He called them to quit their fishing, to lay aside their nets, to go with Him for a new vocation and work. He illustrated their new work by using the figure of their old occupation-"I will make you fishers of men."

James and John were in their father's boat mending nets, and doing the work of their daily calling. It may be they had been called into personal fellowship before, but this was the call to service and work. The King was about to enunciate His great propaganda of the Kingdom. In order to do so it was necessary that He should have a few men gathered around Kim, who were loyal to His kingship. He desired to utter the laws of His Kingdom, but He could only do so to men who were in His Kingdom.

When our Lord calls men away from their daily vocation into a new vocation, He calls them with infinite simplicity, and great sublimity, by suggesting to them that all that they have been using for themselves they can now use for Him. "I will make you fishers of men."

The principle here is not that Jesus is going to make us all fishers of men. He is going to make us all workers, and turn any capacity we have into account. Jesus found me at my desk with boys about me, teaching them, and He passed me one day and said, Come with Me, and I will make you a teacher of men. He took hold of that which I could do, and said, Do it for Me. If He had said "fishers," He never would have won me. He took fishermen, and He said, Fish. He will take soldiers if they will hear, and He will say to them, Fight for Me. He will take the teacher and say to Him, Teach for Me. What He wants, is men who will give Him the capacity they have, and let Him lift it into a higher realm, and He will use it, never mind what it is. He said to these men, Come with Me and I will make you fishers of men; I will take the training you have, and use it on higher levels.

And how beautiful is the answer! It is the same in each case. "Straightway" for Andrew and Simon ; and " Straightway " for James and John. Straightway they dropped their nets and went out after Him. They left their nets and their father, and went out after Him to follow Him. At His command for service, they abandoned their daily calling. They did not do this until He ordered them to. The vast multitude of Christian people are not called to leave their fishing-nets. They are called to abide in their calling with God; which is quite as honourable as leaving it. The honourable thing is to obey Christ, and the despicable thing is to disobey. What He wants is men who can keep hold of the things of the daily calling, until He calls. Has He called you? If He has called you to the ministry, drop the things in your hands straightway; the Kingdom waits for violent hands. If He has not called you, keep hold of the fishing-nets, and you will find when the glory breaks upon your vision by and by, that the fishing-nets, and the fishing, were parts of God's work for winning the world. He called them, and they went straightway.

That last paragraph which tells of the initial success of this ministry of the King is very beautiful. He went everywhere, teaching, preaching, and healing. "The report of Him went forth into all Syria, and they brought unto Him all that were sick, holden with divers diseases and torments, possessed with devils and epileptic, and palsied." Was there ever such a crowd as that? The picture is hardly fascinating at first. Look at the crowd. Look at the fit, who are bringing all the unfit people of the district to Him. Yet it is the most beautiful picture. They brought the sick, the diseased, and the devil-possessed to Him, and He healed them. He is doing it to-day wherever He comes and exercises His ministry, though His word be stern as the flash of Heaven's own word "Repent." They came after Him with diseased people, and broken people-those physically and spiritually afflicted. They are still gathering to-day, notwithstanding the fact that people criticize certain men and methods. Some come out of idle curiosity, but deep down underneath is the hunger to find some one Who will heal. This is a great picture!-Oh, it is a fearfully sad picture! One is always thankful as one reads it, though it seems a strange thing to say, to remember that the Master was not deceived by the multitudes. He knew perfectly well those thronging multitudes. He took accurate measure of the depth of their conviction, and its shallowness. He knew that within a short year or two, some of these very people would hound Him to His death. He knew they would kill Him, and He stayed with them, and loved them, and died for them. Oh! matchless King! Let us crown Him anew. Let us put upon His brow some other wreath, some other chaplet!