idea that the crisis of humanity was close at hand frequently recurred to him: "Now," said he, "from the fig tree learn her parable: When her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh." "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." His powerful eloquence always burst forth when he had to contend with hypocrisy. "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not. Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. "But all their works do they for to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the salutation in the market places, and to be called of men, Rabbi. . . . "But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretense ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation. Woe unto you, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves!" "Wce unto you! for ye are as the tombs which appear not, and the men that walk over them know it not." "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beau tiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.. "Therefore, behold, I will send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." His terrible doctrine of the substitution of the Gentilesthe idea that the kingdom of God was about to be passed over to others, because those for whom it was destined would not receive it, used to recur as a fearful menace against the aristocracy. The title "Son of God," which he openly assumed in vivid parables, wherein his enemies were depicted as murderers of the heavenly messengers, was an open defiance to the Judaism of the Law. The bold appeal he addressed to the poor was yet more seditious. He declared that he had come, "that they which see not may see, and that they which see may become blind." One day, his dislike of the Temple evoked an imprudent speech from him: "I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands." We do not know what meaning Jesus attached to this saying, in which his disciples sought for strained allegories; but, as only a pretext was wanted, it was quickly fastened upon. It reappeared in the preamble of his death warrant, and rang in his ears amid the last agonies of Golgotha. These irritating discussions always ended in tumult. The Pharisees cast stones at him; in doing which they only fulfilled an article in the Law, which commanded that every prophet, even a thaumaturgist, who should turn the people from the ancient worship, was to be stoned without a hearing. At other times they called him mad, possessed, a Samaritan, and even sought to slay him. His words were noted in order to draw down upon him the laws of an intolerant theocracy, which had not yet been abrogated by the Roman power. MOTHER COUNTRY.1 BY CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. [1830-1894.] OH what is that country If I one day may see As I lie dreaming It rises, that land; Its green golden strand, And the shining sand; Do angels lean nearer And catch their windy song, Of their reverend throng. Oh what is a king here, Here all starve together, All dwarfed and poor; 1 By permission of the Publishers, Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 13 Here Death's hand knocketh From the festal floor. Oh what is a handmaid, The fairest not seen; They had breathed or been. Gone from sweet sunshine Underneath the sod, Turned from warm flesh and blood To senseless clod; Gone as if never They had toiled or trod, Gone out of sight of all Except our God. Shut into silence From the accustomed song, Shut into solitude From all earth's throng, Run down though swift of foot, Thrust down though strong; Life made an end of, Seemed it short or long. Life made an end of, Life but just begun; Life finished yesterday, Its last sand run; Life new born with the morrow, Fresh as the sun: While done is done forever; Undone, undone. And if that life is life, This is but a breath, The passage of a dream And the shadow of death; But a vain shadow If one considereth; Vanity of vanities, As the Preacher saith. THE HEART.1 BY JEAN MACÉ. (From "The History of a Mouthful of Bread.") [JEAN MACÉ: A French writer; born in Paris in 1815. His parents were poor, but gave the boy an unusually good education for one of his class. He took a course in the Collège Stanislaus; became instructor in history there in 1836; served three years in the French ariny; sympathized with the revolutionists in 1848, and was banished at the restoration of the Empire. During his exile he taught at a private school for girls at Beblenheim, in Alsace, and used his leisure time in writing stories for the young. On his return to Paris, after ten years' absence, he established the popular Magazine d'Education et de Récréation, and later organized a League of Instruction. His best-known work is "Home Fairy Tales" (1862). Among the others are: "History of a Mouthful of Bread" (1861), "Servants of the Stomach" (1866), and "France before the Franks" (1881).] THERE was once upon a time a banker, a millionaire, who could reckon his wealth not by millions only, but by hundreds of millions and more; who was, in fact, so tremendously rich that he did not know what to do with his money-a difficulty in which nobody had ever been before. This man took it into his head to build a palace infinitely superior to anything that had hitherto been seen. Marbles, carpets, gildings, silk hangings, pictures, and statues in fact, the whole mass of commonplace luxuries as one sees them even in the grandest royal abodes, fell short of his magnificent pretensions. He was an intelligent man, and thoroughly understood the respect due to his riches; and the common fate of kings seemed to him far too shabby for the entertainment of his dynasty, which he looked upon as very superior to all the families of crowned heads in the world. In consequence he sent to the four quarters of the globe for the most illustrious professors, the most skillful engineers, the cleverest and most ingenious workmen in every department, and giving them 1 By permission of Geo. Bell & Sons. |