This, then, is the Apostolic Heritage. It is all sum marized in Zeal for Souls, the first and last motive of the Apostle's life. In his case every other virtue is subsidiary to this thirst for souls, this torment of spirit to aid Christ the Redeemer in seeking and saving sinners. Detachment from worldly goods and from the privileges and the joys of the married state, entire self-immolation, peacefulness and patience under injuries, the spirit of martyrdom, absolute confidence in Divine Providence, intimate union with Christ's Spirit in the inner life-all are inspired by love of souls, and in turn intensify the Apostolic thirst to labor and to suffer for men's salvation. This love of souls is the love of Christ. The Apostle, as he loves Christ, loves the souls of men-more than race or country, father or mother or wife or child. Zeal for souls is pre-eminently the Apostolic virtue. We shall find our Saviour at a later day returning to this subject on occasion of sending forth the seventytwo disciples, and inculcating in much the same terms the very same Apostolic traits of character here depicted with such glowing fervor. After His address to them, Jesus, we may not doubt, opened wide His arms and pressed His well-loved Apostles one by one to His bosom, and so sent them forth. As they set out two and two together on this first Apostolic invasion of the realms of darkness, Jesus turned to the multitude, and pointing after them with tender affection, exclaimed: "Whosoever shall give but a cup of cold water to one of these My little ones because he is My disciple, I say to you that he shall not go without his reward."

Their success was immediate, both as teachers and as wonder-workers: "And going forth they preached that men should do penance, and they cast out many

*

devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." Meantime, and while they were thus scattered through the country places, Jesus continued His own preaching in the towns and cities. "And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He passed from thence to teach and preach in their cities."

This preaching of the Apostles was to be only experimental, a part of their training for the work to be done after the complete organization of the Church by the coming of the Holy Ghost. But it had its good effects. And when a few years afterwards these same men, wholly perfected and transfigured, shall again appear and preach the Kingdom of God, their present mission will have prepared the way. Meantime our Saviour soon draws them back to His company, for with them and their training is He most particularly concerned.

*This ceremony was doubtless a foreshadowing of that consoling Sacrament of the New Law, Extreme Unction. St. James (v. 14) gives in detail the form and substance of it as afterwards instituted by Christ: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man ; and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE OPPOSITION OF THE PHARISEES.-THE BLIND AND DUMB DEVIL.-CHRIST AND BEELZEBUB.BLESSED IS THE WOMB THAT BORE THEE.". THE MOTHER OF JESUS AND HIS BRETHREN. Matt. xii. 22-50; Mark iii. 22-35; Luke xi. 17-36, and viii. 19-21.

MANY of the Pharisees had long known that Jesus of Nazareth was winning the people to a spirit opposed to their own, and this was shown conclusively by the Sermon on the Mount and the public pardon of Mary Magdalen. The leading class in Israel, the Pharisees and Scribes, were longing for the national independence of their own race, and Jesus was bent on saving all mankind from sin and hell. They were, furthermore, fanatically addicted to outward religious observances-this had grown to be the supreme purpose of the Mosaic law with them; Jesus incessantly inculcated the interior virtues, and preached the supremacy of God's mercy. He knew that Israel had run its course as a secular power, and that He was sent to use its best spirits for a new, a high, a supernatural career, compared with which the glories of David and Solomon were but faint suggestions of the divine favor to man. But it is plain that the racial traits of the Jews, their love of pure Hebrew blood and aversion for the foreigner, though well calculated to carry down safely the promises of God

and to make sure of the prophetic identity of the Saviour, were hard to adjust to the international character of the Christian religion. When the Gospel of Christ, therefore, was developed so fully as to show its incompatibility with the racial ambitions of the Pharisees, these agitators, these fierce conspirators, set to work to destroy the Carpenter's Son. And from now on to the end this purpose gives a dark hour to every day in the life of our Saviour. They belittle His power, they malign His motives, they accuse Him of blasphemy, of disloyalty, of heresy. Unscrupulous and blood-thirsty, they are beforehand with Him in His journeys, sowing calumnies against Him. They seek to embroil Him with popular prejudices, to implicate Him in rebellion against the Roman usurper.

This accounts for their accusation of diabolism, when on arriving at Capharnaum Jesus exorcised a man possessed of a blind and dumb devil so that the man spoke and saw. What enraged the Pharisees was the cry of the people: "Is not this the Son of David? But the Pharisees and the Scribes, who were come down from Jerusalem, said: He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince

of devils He casteth out devils." Jesus turned their dreadful accusation to His own account, a custom of His to which we are indebted for some of His best instructions. He called the people together, and, securing silence, said: "How

can

Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided

"Sowing calumnies against Him."

against itself, that kingdom cannot stand; and if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan be risen up against himself, he is divided, and cannot stand, but hath an end." A little good sense, calmly spoken, which has passed into a universal maxim. But Jesus drove it home for His supernatural mission. He referred to the exorcisms of the Jewish rabbis: "And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God come upon you."

What follows is a note of of triumph over the demon. Jesus has entered into this poor world as into Satan's very den, has stricken him a mortal blow, and broken the fetters from his victims' limbs : "When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth. But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, he will take away all his armor wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils." "How can any one enter the house of the strong and rifle his goods, unless he first bind the strong? and then he will rifle his house." And upon this He turns to His friendly hearers and boldly urges an open display of their belief in Him; all or nothing is the divine demand: "He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth." And then to the group of His enemies who had blasphemed the Spirit of God in attributing to the demon the cure of the man possessed: "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but he that shall speak