which could knit together. We have at Ephes. ii. 13-22, St. Paul's commentary on these words of St. John. The children of God' have this name by anticipation here; they are those predestinated to this; who, not being disobedient to the heavenly calling, should hereafter become his children by adoption and grace.' So too, in a parallel passage, Christ says, 'Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold' (John x. 16), others, that is, which should be hereafter his sheep; He has 'much people' in Corinth (Acts xviii. 10), many, that is, who shall be hereafter obedient to the faith. In a subordinate sense they might be termed 'children of God' already; they were the nobler natures, although now run wild, among the heathen, the 'sons of peace,' that should receive the message of peace (Luke x. 6); in a sense, of the truth,' even while they were sharing much of the falsehood round them; so far of the truth,' that, when the King of truth came and lifted up his banner in the world, they gladly ranged themselves under it (John xviii. 37; cf. Luke viii. 15; John iii. 19-21). 6 In pursuance of this advice of Caiaphas it came now to a solemn resolution on the part of the Sanhedrim, that Jesus should die. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death.' There had been purposes and schemes among the Jews,' that is, the Pharisees and their adherents, to put Him to death before (Matt. xii. 14; John v. 16. 18; vii. 1, 19, 25; viii. 37); but it was now the formal resolution of the chief Council of the nation.2 All that now remained was to devise the fittest means for bringing this about. Jesus, therefore, walked no more openly among the Jews (cf. Deut. xxxii. 20), but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness,' the wilderness, that is, which is mentioned Josh. viii. 15, 24; xvi. I; xviii. 12; 1 Augustine, Ep. clxxxvii. 12. * Cornelius a Lapide: Vita Lazari, mors Christi. 1 into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples,'-not indeed for long, for the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand,' and He, the very Paschal Lamb of that Passover, must not be wanting at the feast. In the ancient Church there was ever found, besides the literal, an allegorical interpretation of this and the two other miracles of the like kind. As Christ raises those that are naturally dead, so also He quickens them that are spiritually dead; and the history of this miracle, as it abounds the most in details, so was it the most fruitful field on which the allegorists exercised their skill. Here they found the whole process of the sinner's restoration from the death of sin to a perfect spiritual life shadowed forth; and these allegories are often rich in manifold adaptations of the history, as beautiful as they are ingenious, to that which it is made to declare." Nor was this all; for these three raisings from the dead were often contemplated not apart, not as each portraying exactly the same truth; but in their connexion with one another, as setting forth one and the same truth under different and successive aspects. It was observed how we have the record of three persons that were restored to life,-one, the daughter of Jairus, being raised from the bed; another, the son of the widow, from the bier; and lastly, Lazarus from the grave. And in the same way Christ raises to newness of life sinners of all degrees; not only those who have just fallen away from truth and holiness, like the maiden who had just expired, and in whom, as with a taper newly extinguished, it was by comparison easy to kindle a vital flame anew; but He raises also them who, like the young man borne out to his 1 This Ephraim is considered identical with that mentioned at 2 Chron. xiii. 19; see Ritter's Palestine, Engl. Transl. vol. iv. p. 225; and Robinson's Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 444. It is called in Josephus a Toλixviov (B. J. iv. 9. 9). 2 See, for instance, Augustine, Quæst. lxxxiii. qu. 65; Bernard, De Assum. Serm. iv. 2 1 burial, have been some little while dead in their trespasses. Nor has He even yet exhausted his power; for He quickens them also who, like Lazarus, have lain long festering in their sins, as in the corruption of the grave, who were not merely dead, but buried,-with the stone of evil customs and evil habits laid to the entrance of their tomb, and seeming to forbid all egress thence. Even this stone He rolls away, and bids them to come forth, loosing the bands of their sins so that presently they are sitting down with the Lord at that table, there where there is not the foul odour of the grave, but where the whole house is full of the sweet fragrance of the ointment of Christ (John xii. 1–3). All this Donne has well expressed: 'If I be dead within doors (If I have sinned in my heart), why suscitavit in domo, Christ gave a resurrection to the ruler's daughter within doors, in the house. If I be dead in the gate (If I have sinned in the gates of my soul), in my eyes, or ears, or hands, in actual sins, why suscitavit in portá, Christ gave a resurrection to the young man at the gate of Nain. If I be dead in the grave (in customary and habitual sins), why 1 Gregory the Great (Moral. xxii. 15): Veni foras; ut nimirum homo in peccato suo mortuus, et per molem malæ consuetudinis jam sepultus, quia intra conscientiam suam absconsus jacet per nequitiam, a semetipso foras exeat per confessionem. Mortuo enim, Veni foras, dicitur, ut ab excusatione atque occultatione peccati ad accusationem suam ore proprio exire provocetur (2 Sam. xii. 13). Thus too Hildebert, in his sublime hymn, De SS. Trinitate (see my Sacred Latin Poetry): Extra portam jam delatum, Jam fœtentem, tumulatum, Vitta ligat, lapis urget; Sed si jubes, hic resurget. A fine sermon or homily in Massillon's these lines. Jube, lapis revolvetur, Carême is just the unfolding of 2 The stone, for Augustine, is the law (In Ev. Joh. tract. xlix.): Quid est ergo, Lapidem removete? Littera occidens, quasi lapis est premens. Removete, inquit, lapidem. Removete legis pondus, gratiam prædicate. 'Loose him, and let him go,' he refers to release from Church censures; it was Christ's word which quickened the dead, who yet used the ministration of men to restore entire freedom of action to him whom He had quickened (Enarr. in Ps. ci. 21; Serm. xcviii. 6): Ille suscitavit mortuum, illi solverunt ligatum. suscitavit in sepulcro, Christ gave a resurrection to Lazarus in the grave too." 1 The other raisings from the dead nowhere afford subjects to early Christian Art; but this often, and in all its stages. Sometimes Martha kneels at the feet of Jesus; sometimes the Lord touches with his wonder-staff the head of Lazarus, who is placed upright (which is a mistake, and a transfer of Egyptian customs to Judæa), and rolled up as a mummy (which was nearly correct), in a niche of the grotto; sometimes he is coming forth at the word of the Lord (Münter, Sinnbilder d. Alt. Christ. vol. ii. p. 98).-From a sermon of Asterius we learn that it was a custom in his time, and Chrysostom tells us it was the same among the wealthy Byzantines, to have this and other miracles of our Lord woven on their garments. 'Here mayest thou see,' says Asterius, 'the marriage in Galilee and the waterpots, the impotent man that carried his bed on his shoulders, the blind man that was healed with clay, the woman that had an issue of blood and touched the hem of his garment, the awakened Lazarus; and with this they count themselves pious, and to wear garments well-pleasing to God.' 30 THE OPENING OF THE EYES OF TWO BLIND MEN NEAR JERICHO. MATT. XX. 29-34; MARK X. 46–52; LUKE Xviii. 35–43. THE adjusting of the several records of this miracle has put the ingenuity of harmonists to the stretch. St. Matthew commences his report of it as follows: • And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men, sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David.' Thus, according to him, the Lord is departing from Jericho, and the petitioners are two. St. Luke appears at first sight to contradict both these statements; for him the healed is but one; and Christ effects his cure at his coming nigh to the city. St. Mark occupies a middle place, holding in part with one of his fellow Evangelists, in part with the other; with St. Luke in naming but one who was healed; with St. Matthew in placing the miracle, not at the entering into, but the going out from, Jericho; so that the three narratives in a way as perplexing as it is curious cross and interlace one another. То escape all such difficulties as the synoptic Gospels present us here, there is the ready suggestion always at hand, that the sacred historians are recording different events, and that therefore there is really no difficulty; and nothing to reconcile. But in fact we do not thus evade, we only exchange, our embarrassment. Accepting this solution, we must believe that in the immediate neighbourhood of Jericho, our Lord was thrice besought in almost the same words by blind beggars on |