The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-11-22

cefved that these miracles were having
an influence upon the masses-that
they detracted from their own esteem
amongst the people. They knew that
many of Jesus sayings were wonder
fully wise and that his criticisms of
their own Inconsistencies were re-
markedly sharp. Yet withal, they said,
We know that he is a fraud, because
OF his peculiar claim to be the Messiah
and the Son of God This claim Of his
discountenances all Of his teachings
and mighty works. 1t cannot be true
that he is the Messiah that our nation
has waited for these more than sixteen
centuries. God would surely send
Messiah sufficiency of demonstration
Of glory and power to convince the
most intelligent OF our nation. the
Scribes and Pharisees and Priests,
What they all dissent from. repudiate
and denounce, must be false.
For the Good Of the Nation.
The Jewish wise men of eighteen
centuries ago concluded that a man
who set the masses agog with antici-
patton of himself as the Messiah King,
yet was without an army and without
financial backing for campaign,
would present their nation to the Ro-
mans in ludicrous light. As a result
they might have taken from them, at
the word of the Emperor, the civil and
religious privileges and rights they
were enjoying. They took counsel and
determined that in the interests OF the
peace Of the nation this golden-tongued
miracle-worker should either be ex-
posed as a fraud or be killed. They
tried first to expose him by trapping
him In his language in the presence OF
his followers and the multitude. But
his intellect was keener than theirs
and the thrusts they made at him re
bounded to their own discomfort and
established his own standing IN the
estimation OF his followers and in the
eyes of the people. One OF these ef-
forts to show up the holiowness Of his
claims and their fraudulency and to
discourage his followers is worthy OF
particular notice. as Il furnishes us
the key to the sentiment OF the rulers
and also the key 20 the real facts OF
the case which those rulers failed to
discern.
The Kingdom In Ne0r Midst.
The influential Jews said. Let us
question this fraudulent Messiah re-
specting his pretentions. not with any
hope OF correcting him, but with
view to opening the eyes Of his follow
ers 10 the weakness and fallacy OF his
teachings. Then they will see the hol-
lowness of the hopes they are enter
ing their various avocations to be-
come his followers, in the hope of sit
ting with him In his Throne. They
viii see that he has no prospect of ever
securing a Throne and that they are
merely deluded by him in such expec-
tations. They inquired Of him, When
viii your Kingdom appear? How long
will It be before you sit upon your
throne and have your followers with
You In the Throne? How long before
this Messianic Kingdom will rule in
Palestine and extend from its borders
to the ends Of the earth? After you
have answered us these questions we
will ask you others respecting your
financial support and resources-your
own qualifications, and your subordi-
nate officers; the arms for your SOL
diers and the supplies necessary for
such a world-campaign as you are
about to begin, according to your
teachings.
The Great Teachers brief answer
entirely silenced every objection. His
questions, had these men been 'Is-
raelites indeed" would have been so
deeply impressed upon them that they
would have followed up the matter
with an entirely different line of ques-
tioning than at first contemplated.
But they were insincere. Hence when
their questions, intended to entrap the
Teacher and Master, were answered
and foiled they merely acknowledged
their defeat by their silence. The an
swer was not, as imperfectly trans
lated in our Common version-The
Kingdom Of heaven is sOithin you, hyp-
ocritical Pharisees, but, My Kingdom,
the Kingdom Of heaven, of which am
the King, will not appear at all. 1t
will be an invisible Kingdom-it comes
not with observation or outward show.
Ye shall neither say, Lo, it Is here,
nor, Lo, it is there; for it win be every
where in the midst Of you, amongst
you, invisible but all-powerful duke
xvii, 2O-22.
Truly, what manner of man was
this, and what manner of message and
Kingdom was his, so different from
anything the Jews had ever expected?
Can we wonder that only a compare
lively small proportion of them were
in the heart attitude to receive this
message respecting a Spiritual King
dom? We cannot wonder! Even his
most intimate disciples did not grasp
the depth Of his teaching until, after
his death and resurrection, they, at
Pentecost, received the special en-
hghtenment foretold for the servants
and handmaidens (Joel ii, 29).
Then understood they the true depth
OF the teachings of him who spake as
never man spake. Then they compre-
hepded that he was the only begotten
Son Of God who, In obedience to the
Divine program for Israel and the
world, had left the heavenly courts
and glory Of the spirit nature and been
made f1esh-'"The man Christ Jesus"
q Timothy Ii, ". Then they under
stood, not only that he was a perfect
man, but that, through the amounting
OF the holy Spirit which came upon
him at baptism, he was indeed Gods
Amounted, the antitypical Priest, anti
typical Prophet and antitypical King
not that he was these in the flesh, but
that the new spirit nature, begotten
IN him through that amounting, was
perfected in the resurrection, and that
1t is the glorified Christ ON the spirit
plane who will accomplish all the
great things predicted through the
prophets, blessing all Israel and all ma
tons, in Gods due time. Then they
understood the meaning Of the Mas
ter's words to the Roman Governor,
My Kingdom is not Of this Age; If it
were, then my servants would fight
for me and 1 should not be delivered
to death. Then they perceived that
his Kingdom will be not the less real
and powerful, but the more SO, be-
cause a heavenly one, a spiritual one,
which, in due time, in the Age to
come, will operate through the nation
Of Israel, just as was originally prom
ised and expected.