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narrowing down, through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah, through David, to Christ.

What was the Sign granted to Abraham? Circumcision was established as the token of the covenant. It signified separation, consecration. But the promise given to Abraham was a promise of worldwide blessing. That promise is fulfilled in Christ. Is there a sign that answers to the promise? Separation, and the circumcision by which it was signified, were only for a time. Abraham was called out of the world that all the world might be blessed in him. There is a sign that answers to this promise. It was the sign of Isaac his son stretched upon the altar, and delivered in the instant of death.

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day", said Jesus to the Jews; "and he saw it, and was glad" (John viii. 56). Upon what occasion this vision of the Coming One was granted to Abraham we are not told. But the event to which it naturally belongs was the offering of his son to God. In that hour we may believe, Abraham caught a glimpse of the heavenly Father, who should offer his Son a sacrifice for the sin of the world. His faith did not falter, nor his obedience fail, in presence of the sorest trial that human hearts may know. God's covenant was made with him in Isaac, and now Isaac is to be put to death. How then shall the covenant be fulfilled? He did not know. He believed and obeyed, "accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead" (Heb. xi. 19). It was a bold flight of faith. The resurrection of the dead had never been known since the world began. No promise of it was given. But Abraham believed that in some way the covenant would be kept even though Isaac should be slain. And his faith was rewarded by the vision of the Savior. Through his own experience he was drawn into sympathy with the heart of God, and caught a glimpse of the depths of that divine love from which his own father-love was kindled. The altar that he built for Isaac was a sign of the Isaac was a type of Christ-the only son of prom

cross.

ise, heir of the covenant, offered in sacrifice, accepted of God, restored to life.

The dominant note of this section is redemption. Mankind shall be blessed in Abraham, and his seed shall possess the earth. Sin, judgment, salvation, are the great themes with which the book of Genesis is concerned.

The remaining history, however interesting and important, is only the unfolding of the covenant made with Abraham. Isaac and Jacob and Joseph simply continue the line of development which began with him.

We have then, as our analysis of the book, three men, three events, three promises, three signs. There is Adam, father of the race; the fall; the promise of the seed of the woman; the flaming sword, sign of a lost paradise. There is Noah, father of the new world; the flood; the promise of safety; the rainbow, sign of a spared world. There is Abraham, father of the faithful; the call; the promise of worldwide blessing; the offering and deliverance of Isaac, the sign of a coming Savior. In each case the promise answers to the need. To Adam in his sin is given the promise of a Savior; to Noah under the shadow of a great judgment the promise of safety; to Abraham separated from the world the promise of worldwide blessing. Here is man fallen, punished, redeemed. Here is God, Creator, Judge, Savior. How poor and weak is man as he appears upon these earliest pages of history, yet of what immeasurable capacity for good as for evil. What he is we see, but it doth not yet appear what he shall be. How just and holy and good is God, who will by no means clear the guilty, whose judgments are swift and sure and terrible; yet He is long-suffering, merciful, gracious, and has found a way, though at infinite cost, to save guilty and rebellious

man.

To Him be all the praise.

Harrisburg, Pa.

J. RITCHIE SMITH.

MISCONCEPTION OF JESUS, AND BLASPHEMY OF THE SON OF MAN

It is, perhaps, not always appreciated how great a popular excitement was roused when, as Mark puts it, "after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk. i. 14, 15). It is not the fault of the Evangelists if it is not fully understood. Mark, for example, adverts no less than eight times before he reaches the middle of his third chapter to the enthusiasm which attended Jesus wherever He appeared. We shall perceive how nearly this constitutes the main subject of these opening chapters of his Gospel, if we will but read consecutively the passages in which it is spoken of. “And the report of Him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about" (i. 28). “And at even when the sun did set they brought unto Him all that were sick, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city were gathered together at the door" (i. 32, 33). “And they found Him and say unto Him, All are seeking Thee" (i. 37). "Insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, and was without in desert places; and they came to Him from every quarter” (i. 45). "And when He entered again into Capernaum after some days it was noised that He was in the house. And many were gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door . . . and when they could not come nigh Him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was" (ii. 1, 2, 4). "And He went forth again by the seaside, and all the multitude resorted unto Him" (ii. 13). "And Jesus with His disciples withdrew to the sea; and a great multitude from Galilee followed: and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond Jordan, a great multitude hearing what great things He did, came unto Him. And He spoke to His disciples that a little boat should wait on Him because

of the crowd, lest they should throng Him" (iii. 7-9). "And He cometh into a house, and the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread" (iii. 20).1 We may almost fancy that we can observe the crowds which thronged Jesus ever increasing in number and persistency under our eyes: they gather at the door (i. 32-34); there is no longer room even at the door (ii. 2); they are so continually with Him that He has no opportunity even to eat (iii. 20). But we note that, already at i. 45 (cf. i. 37), they had not only made the city inaccessible to Him, but had populated the very desert to which He withdrew; and at iii. 9 (cf. iv. 1) they so thronged Him even on the open sea-shore as to compel Him to take refuge in a boat and speak to them thence. The agency by which this great public agitation was created was not merely the proclamation that the Kingdom of God was at hand, but the manifestation of its actual presence in the abounding miracles of healing which were performed (Mat. xii. 28, Lk. xi. 20).2 Disease and death must have been almost eliminated for a brief season from Capernaum and the region which lay immediately around Capernaum as a center. No wonder the public mind was thrown into a state of profound perturbation, and, the enthusiasm spreading, men flocked from every quarter to see this great thing, questioning with one another what it all meant.

Meanwhile, there were necessarily many who were not drawn into the movement but remained rather, whether momentarily or permanently, merely spectators of it. Of these there were in particular two classes who nevertheless could not look with indifference upon the wave of popular

1So, consecutively, iv. 1, v. 21, 24, 27, 31, vi. 34, vii. 24, 33, viii. 1, ix. 14, 25, x. I, 4, 6.

'Cf. E. von Dobschütz, The Expositor, VII. ix (1910), p. 334: "This 'is come' (plave) must mean something more than the usual ‘is at hand' (myyɩkev); it is the solemn declaration that the Kingdom is present in Jesus' activity; His casting out of devils proves that the powers of the Kingdom are at work." Cf. also H. J. Holtzmann, Synoptiker. p. 243.

excitement sweeping through the land as it rose to its crest. These were those who felt responsible for Jesus Himself on the one hand, and on the other those who felt responsible for the religion of the community,-for we must bear in mind that the movement was from first to last a distinctly and intensely religious one. The circle of Jesus' relations (perhaps we may take the word for the moment in a rather broader sense than that of its current usage) and the body of the constituted religious guides of the people must each have been compelled to form at once a preliminary judgment upon the movement, and to act upon it. Nor was it likely that in either case this judgment would be favorable. Inevitably, in each case alike, it would be the expression of anxiety not to say of irritation. It is this natural judgment of what we may call the two interested classes that Mark records for us when, as he tells of the concourse of the crowd again to Jesus on His return to Capernaum after His second circuit in Galilee (Mk. iii. 20), he adds: "And when His relations heard it, they came forth to take charge of Him, for they said, He is out of His mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebul, and it is by the prince of the demons that He casteth out the demons" (Mk. iii. 21, 22). The two judgments are as opposed as are the springs of emotion out of which they rise. It is pity that we hear the echoes of in the one; anger in the other. Jesus' relations, who, it must be observed, had a mere hearsay knowledge of the movement which was sweeping over Galilee in His train-He had not yet been to Nazareth (Mk. vi. 1 ),3—judged from the reports of His conduct which had reached them that He was not altogether Himself, and were prepared to take the responsibility of restraining Him. The scribes, who had heard His words and witnessed His works, could not deny that a supernatural power was operative among them; but, being unwilling to accredit this to a divine, ascribed it rather to a

3

Lk. iv. 16ff. seems to be a different visit (implied also in Mt. iv. 12, 13) which took place before His Galilean ministry had fairly begun (cf. Meyer, on Mt. xiii. 53).

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