f man, although they
are often developed amidst a crowd of littlenesses which, to
superficial minds, eclipse their grandeur.

[Footnote 1: _Hysteria Muscularis_ of Shoenlein.]

In a general sense, it is therefore true to say that Jesus was only
thaumaturgus and exorcist in spite of himself. Miracles are ordinarily
the work of the public much more than of him to whom they are
attributed. Jesus persistently shunned the performance of the wonders
which the multitude would have created for him; the greatest miracle
would have been his refusal to perform any; never would the laws of
history and popular psychology have suffered so great a derogation.
The miracles of Jesus were a violence done to him by his age, a
concession forced from him by a passing necessity. The exorcist and
the thaumaturgus have alike passed away; but the religious reformer
will live eternally.

Even those who did not believe in him were struck with these acts, and
sought to be witnesses of them.[1] The pagans, and persons
unacquainted with him, experienced a sentiment of fear, and sought to
remove him from their district.[2] Many thought perhaps to abuse his
name by connecting it with seditious movements.[3] But the purely
moral and in no respect political tendency of the character of Jesus
saved him from these entanglements. His kingdom was in the circle of
disciples, whom a like freshness of imagination and the same foretaste
of heaven had grouped and retained around him.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xiv. 1, and following; Mark vi. 14; Luke ix. 7,
xxiii. 8.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. viii. 34; Mark v. 17, viii. 37.]

[Footnote 3: John vi. 14, 15.]

CHAPTER XVII.

DEFINITIVE FORM OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

We suppose that this last phase of the activity of Jesus continued
about eighteen months from the time of his return from the Passover of
the year 31, until his journey to the feast of tabernacles of the year
32.[1] During this time, the mind of Jesus does not appear to have
been enriched by the addition of any new element; but all his old
ideas grew and developed with an ever-increasing degree of power and
boldness.

[Footnote 1: John v. 1, vii. 2. We follow the system of John,
according to whom the public life of Jesus lasted three years. The
synoptics, on the contrary, group all the facts within the space of
one year.]

The fundamental idea of Jesus from the beginning, was the
establishment of the kingdom of Go