Edwin Abbott Abbott

“ Only Judas said that he liked not that Jesus should speak of a Congregation and not of a Nation or People. “For,” said he, “a Congregation goeth not forth to battle, nor taketh cities, nor setteth up empires and kingdom: but this is the work of a People. Wherefore my mind misgiveth me lest our Master, becoming desperate of his first purpose of setting up a kingdom, should now determine within himself to found a sect such as the sect of the Essenes or Pharisees. For he was not wont before to speak of a Congregation, but he ever spake of a Kingdom of God, or a Kingdom of heaven.” ”

“ So Peter went to Jesus and said, “Lo, we have left all and followed thee.” He said no more, but Jesus perceived what was in his heart; and he answered and said to us all, “Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions: and in the world to come eternal life.” ”

“ When Jesus perceived that the man had not yet faith (but only desire bordering upon faith) , he said unto him, repeating the man’s words, “If thou canst; if thou canst. Nay, but believe. All things are possible to him that believeth.” And straightway the man cried out for anguish of soul, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Then the face of Jesus was glad, and immediately he rebuked the unclean spirit; and it came forth tearing the boy and leaving him as one dead, insomuch that many said “he is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. ”

“ And behold, the Kingdom was no other than a family, wherein God was at once Father and King, and all men were as children of the Father in Heaven. For the foundation of all was, that the heart and not the hands shaped the goodness and badness of all deeds, and made men to become citizens of the Kingdom: wherefore the heart and not the hands must be purified; nor could any be in truth citizens of the Kingdom except they had the thought of the Kingdom always in their hearts, so that their hopes and treasures were all stored up, not in the banks of money-changers, but in the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

“ Then one said that the Kingdom of God and the Redemption of Sion were now as far off as ever. But Mary of Magdala said with great vehemency, “that she mourned not for the Redemption of Sion, but because the breath of life was taken out of the world, for without Jesus there was no more truth nor righteousness. He trusted in God, would not God deliver him? Was he not the Son of the living God? If, therefore, the Father live, how can the Son be dead?” She added yet other words still more passionate, as if God were no God unless Jesus were restored to life. ”

“ Peradventure, therefore, the burden of Jesus was this bearing of the sins of men, and especially of the sin of Judas and the infirmities of you his disciples, and the thought of the impotence of good to conquer evil. Moreover perchance there rose up before him the image of the morrow, when he should hang upon the cross, and when the strength and force of life should leave him, and there should be no one to succour, no one to comfort; and a vision from Satan stood before him, and he heard a voice that whispered evil things: ‘If now thou shouldest lose thy trust for an instant? ”

“ And the chief ruler did not restrain himself, but said to Jesus aloud in the presence of us all, “Is it even so that thou wouldst fain be Ruler over Israel? Behold, on thy side are Matthew the tax-gatherer, and Barachiah the child of Satan, and Mary the sinner; but on my side are Eliezer the son of Arak and all the elders of the synagogue. Is it not better to be the tail of a lion rather than the head of a dog?” ”

“ So he seemed to signify that Jerusalem was as it were a field of battle, whereon it was meet and right that a true prophet should die. After this he added, that if he were lifted up in the sight of all men, he should draw all men unto him. This joining together of words diverse in nature, of perishing and lifting up, and of departing and drawing all men unto him, filled us with perplexity; insomuch that Judas said in a low voice that the words of Jesus were like unto oil and vinegar, which cannot be mixed. ”

“ And last of all, these Essenes were as naught save for themselves alone. For they took for their watchword the saying, “Withdraw thyself from an evil neighbour and consort not with the wicked:” therefore were they of no avail to the sinners of my people. For albeit that saying of Hillel was often in their mouths, which saith, “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace;” yet did they forget the last words of that saying, which bid us also to “love mankind and bring men nigh unto the Law.” For the Essenes bring no man nigh unto the Law save themselves only. ”

“ Now even such a wise mariner doth Jesus seem unto me.”
I marvelled at his words. But Quartus perceived that I understood him not; and he continued, “I speak as one groping in the dark. But the meaning of my parable is this: The lake is the world; the vessel is Israel; and Capernaum is redemption. Other pilots have striven to guide Israel to redemption by dint of force, but they have failed: Jesus is the true pilot, and knoweth the currents and streams in the nature of men and things; and by his wisdom he thinketh to guide us aright.” ”

“ But as thou knowest, my dear friend, I am one of them which doubt all things; and I incline to the belief that there are no gods, or if there be, that they deal not with human matters. And thereto I incline the more because I see all human things full of misery and oppression. And, unless my fears deceive me, this my belief will be confirmed by the fate of thine own Teacher. For I fear, I greatly fear, lest the friends of Abuyah the Scribe may prevail over the friends of Jesus the philosopher of the New Kingdom and deliverer of the slaves. ”

“ It is as though thou shouldst say, ‘It is better that a man should commit murder and adultery and theft (provided that he love righteousness) , than that he should abstain from all these sins, but not love righteousness.’ ” “Thou knowest well,” replied Nathanael, “that according to a man’s love of righteousness will be his hatred of sin; and whoso really hateth sin, he cannot live therein. Yet what thou sayest is true; there is more hope of the vilest sinner than of the man that hath in his heart no love of righteousness.” ”

“ Then I called to mind the words of the Lord, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;” and behold, it came in upon me all at once, as in a flood, that our exactness in the observing of the Sabbath might haply be an abomination in the eyes of the All-seeing (blessed is He) whensoever it hindereth kindness and mercy. After this my eyes again fell upon the roll, and I read aloud these words wherein the prophet prescribeth the cure for the wounds of Israel. “Cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” ”

“ The faces of all children, whom thou didst call thy little ones, give back the brightness of thy countenance; the goodness of all good men testifieth unto thee, the supreme pattern of all good; yea even the bad and the weak proclaim their need of thee, O Lord our Redeemer, in whom alone is power to create goodness in the worst, and to make the weakest strong. To thy word the seed-time and harvests bear witness; the flowers also do sing of thy trustfulness and hope. If I look unto the earth, thou hast trodden and sanctified it; if to the heaven, thou hast gone up into it and dost possess it ”

“ For words may not describe with how great a joy we lived during those days one with another, and what a passion of love knit our hearts together; and it seemed a sin that so much joy and happiness should not be imparted to others besides ourselves only. For at this time we, the disciples of Jesus, were as it were in Paradise, and joy went ever with us. For if we sailed upon the lake in our fishing-boats, Jesus was there; or if we remained in Capernaum, working in the gardens, or on the quay, or about the booths, or went out into the fields, Jesus was there ”

“ But by degrees our tongues were loosed, and we began to speak more freely concerning the goodness of Jesus, how exceeding gentle he was at all times to the young and simple, and to the poor and oppressed; how full of peace and cheerfulness; how thoughtful for others, how forgetful of himself. Then we spake of his marvellous power in the forgiving of sins, and in the healing of diseases, and in the casting out of unclean spirits. ”

“ Then I mused for a space, and afterwards I questioned Nathanael yet again and said, “Thou hast said that in the Day of Redemption the Holy One (blessed is He) will slay the Evil Nature of men. Therefore at the great day what thinkest thou of them which have blasphemed the Holy Spirit? Will they also perish together with the Evil Nature? Or will there be yet another age after the age that is to come, so that even the wicked may yet be in the end redeemed? For Jesus said that they should not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come.” ”

“ Moreover at all times Jesus loved to be alone on the tops of mountains, not as though he counted high places to be more holy than others, but because all visible things testified to him of the Father, and when he looked forth upon the world at sunrise from the summit of a mountain, then the Angels of God which rule over the light and the sky and the earth and the air, seemed to speak unto him with a louder and a fuller voice. ”

“ No man may earn a living in Galilee now, unless he speak Greek. With Greek theatres and amphitheatres, and baths, and market-places; with Greek pictures and images, and feasts and games; with Greek songs, and poems, and histories, they purpose, by easy degrees, to beguile the hearts of our young men from the religion of their forefathers. Our princes are Edomites in the pay of Rome. Our rich men long for the fleshpots of Rome, and call themselves by the name of Herod. Our Scribes, our wise men, cry peace when there is no peace, and wink at the payment of tribute. ”

“ When he had made an end of reading, Jesus began to exhort the people, saying that he was sent to proclaim good news, to release the captive, give health to the sick, and light to the blind, and to bring Redemption to Israel. God, he said, loved all; not the good alone, but even the bad: yea, God was in very truth our Father in heaven. Therefore how much soever the kindest father on earth may love his children, albeit they transgress against him, much more is the love of God toward us though we be sinners. ”

“ Not many days gone by, I heard Jesus speak concerning the Holy Spirit; and his words were on this wise. As in each man the man’s breath or spirit is the life of the body, so in each man there is a certain holy breath or spirit which is the life of his soul; whence also cometh every good thought and deed unto the man. Moreover thou seest that the air which we breathe, and which is the breath of our bodies, is but a part of that great sea of air which embraceth the whole earth so that there is nothing hidden from the touch thereof ”

“ For ever as Jesus drew nearer to Jerusalem, the sins of the people seemed to weigh heavier upon his soul, and death and destruction seemed to grow larger in his eyes; insomuch that now he desired to exhort the people not so much to enter into the Kingdom, as rather to flee from death unto life. Yea, so exceedingly did he fear the power of Satan to slay the souls of men, that about this time, when a certain disciple desired to have left him for a season to bury his father, Jesus would have the young man still continue with him, saying that the dead should bury their own dead. ”

“ From Eliezer the son of Arak to Jonathan the son of Ezra: salutation and peace. Be it known unto thee, O Jonathan, that this Jesus of Nazareth, concerning whom we once had hopes that he might be a deep well or perchance even an ever-welling spring of the Law, hath proved an empty vessel and a broken cistern. He profaneth the Sabbath and teacheth others to profane it; he eateth without the washing of hands; he teacheth that no man is defiled by that which he toucheth or eateth; in a word, he breaketh the Law and causeth others to profane it. ”

“ Therefore was it most needful that he should speak the truth, and nothing less than the truth, concerning the Pharisees; to the intent that the eyes of all mankind might be opened, even to the generations of generations, that they might discern that the sin of sins is hypocrisy. For other sins wound, but this sin slayeth, the conscience. Peradventure also Jesus foresaw that a time might come when certain, even among his own disciples, would err as the Pharisees had erred, shutting their eyes against the truth, as being unfit for use and not convenient. ”

“ For the doctrine of John was simple and just, commending itself to the consciences of men; not flattering any nor busying itself with abstruse matters; but fit for the work of life and the paths of busy men, able, as it seemed, to carry purity and righteousness even to the side of the plough, and into the ranks of armed men, and into the shops and offices of tradesmen and tax-gatherers. For this cause the teaching of John won a way into the hearts of men of every degree, save only certain of the Pharisees. ”

“ But they that saw him told me that it was even as Nathanael had described unto me the healing of Mattathias. For Jesus fixed his eyes steadfastly on the man, as if he saw, not the man himself, but the man’s angel standing in heaven bound before the throne of God, with the chains of Satan round him, and all the host of heaven looking thereon. “His countenance also shone as the sun: pity and sorrow were there, but pity and sorrow swallowed up in the brightness and glory of joy and triumph; and the sick man’s face gave back the brightness. ”