The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-17


ingless Journalism, of consecrated hypocrisy
bondage more degrading than the payment
of tribute to the Emperor. The true busi-
ness of the Messiah, then, was to deliver his
people from the former bondage; it might be
left to Jehovah, in his own good time, to
deliver them from the latter. Holding these
views, it was hardly possible that it should
not sooner or latter occur to Jesus that he
himself was the person destined to discharge
this glorious function, to hberate his coun-
trymen from the thraldom of Pharisaic ritual
ism, and to inaugurate the real Messianic
kingdom of spiritual righteousness. Had he
not already preached the advent Of this
spiritual kingdom and been instrumental
in raising many to loftier conceptions
of duty and to higher and purer
life? And might he not now, by grand
attack upon Pharisaism in its central strong
hold, destroy its prestige in the eyes of the
people, and cause Israel to adopt a nobler re-
ligious and ethical doctrine? The temeritv
of such purpose detracts nothing from its
sublimity And if that purpose should be
accomplished Jesus would really have per-
formed the legitimate work of the Messiah
Thus, from his own point of view, Jesus was
thoroughly consistent and rational in an
nouncing himself as the expected deliverer
and in the eyes of the impartial historian his
course is fully justified. "From that time"
says the first evangelist, Jesus began to
show to his disciples that he must 90 to Jeru-
salem and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests, and scribes, and be put to
death, and rise again on the third day." Here
we have, obviously, the knowledge of the
writer, after the event, reflected back and at
tributed to Jesus. 1t is. of course, impos-
sible that Jesus should have predicted with
such defniteness his approaching death; nor
is it very likely that he entertained any hope
of being raised from the grave son the third
day." To man in that age and country
the conception of a return from the lower
world of shades was not difficult one to
frame and it may well be that Jesus sense
of his own exalted position was sufficiently
great to inspire him with the confidence that
even in case of temporary failure, Jehovah
would rescue him from the grave and send
him back with larger powers to carry out the
purpose of his mission. But the difficulty of
distinguishing between his own words and
the Interpretation put upon them by his dis
ciples becomes here insuperable and there
will always be room for the hypothesis that
Jesus had in view no posthumous career of
his own, but only expressed his mistaken
confidence in the success of his enterprise,
even after and in spite of his death.
At all events, the possibility of his death
must now have been often in his mind. He
was undertaking well-nigh desperate task
to overthrow the Pharisees in Jerusalem itself
No other alternative was left him. And here
we believe Mr.. F. w. Newman to be singu-
larly at fault in pronouncing this attempt of
Jesus upon Jerusalem 'tfoolhardy" attempt
According to Mr.. Newman, no man has any
business to rush upon certain death, and it is
only a crazy lunatic who will do So But
such 'glittering generalizations" will here
help us but little. The historic data show
that to go to Jerusalem, even at the risk of
death, was absolutely necessary to the realiza-
tion of Jesus, Messianic project. Mr.. New
man certainly would not have had him drag
out an inglorious and baffied existence in
Syro-Ph9nicia. If the Messianic kingdom
was to be fairly inaugurated, there was work
to be done in Jerusalem, and Jesus must go
there as one in authority, cost what it might.
We believe him to have gone there in aspirit
of grand and careless bravery, yet seriously
and soberly and under the influence of no
fanatical delusion. He knew the risks, but
deliberately chose to incur them, that the will
OF Jehovah might be accomplished
We next hear of Jesus travelling down to
Jerusalem by way of Jericho, and entering
the sacred city in his character of Messiah,
attended by great multitude. 1t was near
the time of the Passover, when people from
all parts of Galiee and Judea were sure to be
at Jerusalem, and the nature of his reception
seems to indicate that he had already secured
considerable number of followers upon
whose assistance he might hope to rely,
though it nowhere appears that he intended
to use other than purely moral weapons to
insure favorable reception. We must re-
member that for half a century many of the
Jewish people had been constantly looking
for the arrival of the Messiah, and there can
be little doubt that the entry of Jesus riding
upon an ass in literal fulfilment of prophecy
must have wrought powerfully upon the ina
glnation of the multitude. That the believers
IN him were very numerous must be inferred
from the cautious, not to say timid,
behavior OF the rulers at Jerusalem, who
are represented as desiring to arrest him,
but as deferred from taking active steps
through fear of the people. We are led to
the same conclusion by his driving the
money-changers out of the temple-an act
upon which he could hardly have ventured
had not the popular enthusiasm in his favor
been for the moment overwhelming. But
the enthusiasm Of a mob is short-lived, and
needs to be fed upon the excitement of
brilliant and dramatically arranged events.
The calm preacher of righteousness, or even
the fiery denouncer of the Scribes and Pha-
risees could not hope to retain undiminished
authority save by the display of extraordinary
powers to which, SO far as we know, Jesus,
like Mahomet, made no pretense. (Matthew
xvi. 1-4.) The ignorant and materialistic
populace could not understand the exalted
conception of Messiahship which had been
formed by Jesus, and as day after day
elapsed without the appearance of any
marvellous sign from Jehovah, their enthusi-
asm must naturally have cooled down. Then
the Pharisees appear cautiously endeavoring
to entrap him into admissions which might
render him obnoxious to the Roman Cover
nor. He saw through their design, however,
f.sI L., l. All