ways intelligible, their very obscurity shone with the bright light of truth, with present meaning or prophetic. But that mysterious three days' rebuilding of a mighty temple was never forgotten by friend or foe of Jesus. It was His first teaching in Jerusalem, and at the very end of His life we shall hear Him accused of blasphemy for it in the high court of the Jews; it was railed in scorn against Him even under the Cross. His disciples, after having long cherished it as a test of faith in Him, shall be transfigured by its fulfilment into envoys of the divine love to mankind. From another point of view, the prophecy shall be fulfilled by the effacement of the Temple's authority at the death of Christ, typified by the rending of the veil of its sanctuary from top to bottom, the cessation of its rites, the suppression of the Mosaic religious system, and the substitution of the Kingdom of God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are left to our imagination if we ask what might have been the result of this public and fearless display of the love of Jesus for His Father's holy Temple if it had been received in a proper spirit by the Jewish priests and scribes. It might have been the beginning of a sincere and universal awakening in Israel, carrying John the Baptist's mission triumphantly everywhere among the people and their leaders, and gaining the adhesion of the whole nation to the Messias whom he had announced. The public life of Jesus would in that case have begun and ended very differently from the actual facts. Had the Jews known the difference between the casket and the necklace, between their race and their religion, they would have received the Messias with open arms after His display of power in the cleansing of the Temple. CHAPTER IX. JESUS BEGINS TO TEACH IN JERUSALEM. THE INTERVIEW WITH NICODEMUS. John ii. 23-35, and iii. 1-21. HE Jewish priesthood, it was soon very evident, was opposed to Jesus, even so far as to hinder His getting an audience. They would not allow Him the Temple or its precincts for His discourses if they could prevent it, and therefore He chose the more open places in the streets of the city and in the suburbs, talk ing to the people in little groups or in great crowds. He worked miracles also, though St. John, who alone tells us of this sojourn of Jesus in Jerusalem, does not particularize them. "Now when He was at Jerusalem at the Pasch upon the festival day, many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He did." Amazement at His miracles was not always a sign of true faith in His Messias-ship. Although everybody began to talk about Him, and although numbers were sincerely won, Jesus knew men too well to trust to the general sentiment about Him. "But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew all men, and because He needed not that any should give testimony of man; for He knew what was in man." In fact, the history of religion proves that only a few are gifted quickly to discern true miracles and understand their significance; while, on the other hand, the common mass of men are readily led astray by false wonders and often misinterpret the meaning of true ones. Hence, if it be asked how the enemies of Jesus could resist the evidence of His miracles, the answer is, that they had made up their minds be forehand that He was not the Christ. Have we not in our own day often heard men of science say that if they saw a miracle or many of them with their own eyes they would not believe them real? The capacities of faith are great, but so are the capacities of incredulity. Nicodemus was a man capable of true faith. He was a leading Pharisee, a doctor of the law, a wellknown personage in Jerusalem. Had he been half as brave in professing the truth as he was anxious to learn it, his character would have been well balanced. He managed to gain access to a private meeting held by Jesus after nightfall, in which our Saviour discoursed freely with His chosen disciples; John was one of these, and thus was probably an eye-witness of this interview, of which he has given an account. "Rabbi," said Nicodemus, "we know that Thou art come a teacher from God, for no man can do these signs which Thou dost unless God be with him." He and his friends had honestly read the divine credentials of Jesus, His miracles. A miracle is the seal of heaven upon the message of a man of God the Deity thereby assumes responsibility for His truthfulness. Here, then, Nicodemus recognized a Teacher whose authority transcended that of the official teaching of the Jews, for this strange Teacher from Galilee had God's glorious power of miraclesNicodemus had seen Him display it openly and repeatedly. Furthermore, a timid soul admires a courageous one, and so Nicodemus was drawn to our Saviour by His bold attack on the venders in the Temple. We notice the air of authority on the part of Jesus in dealing with this first-fruit from the higher ranks of Judaism. He gives Nicodemus an instructior THE NEW BIRTH. And there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to him: Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God; for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him. Jesus answered, and said to him: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith to him: How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again? Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Wonder not, that I said to thee, you must be born again. The Spirit breatheth where he will; and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh and whither he goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered, and said to him: How can these things be done? Jesus answered, and said to him: Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? Amen, amen I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. If I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not: how will you believe if I shall speak to you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. He that believeth in him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light for their works were evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. : But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest because they are done in God. for receiving baptism, as we would term the discourse. But it included the most sublime of all the doctrines of Christ, that of the new birth, the new life of our souls in the Holy Ghost. Every man, even this learned and pious Hebrew teacher, shall be made over again, his powers of knowing and loving entering upon a new order of existence so radically different from the old as to be called another creation-as much higher than the first as the divine is higher than the human. Thoughts and loves natural only to God are now to be the privilege of the mind and heart of man in a more than natural condition. Jesus did not hesitate to express the change in fitting terms: "Amen, Amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Though this sounded strangely to the ears of a strict Pharisee, one who had never doubted his high place in the only kingdom of God, that of Israel, and though he made objections, yet Jesus went on with His discourse and won him with His doctrine of the Spirit. The explanation which was granted this timid disciple of Jesus was that the elements of inanimate nature should be lifted into union with the 168 highest life of the uncreated Divinity-water and spirit "Nicodemus said: 'How can these things be done?'" |