already kindled?"[2] "They shall put you out of the
synagogues," he continued; "yea, the time cometh, that whosoever
killeth you, will think that he doeth God service."[3] "If the world
hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. Remember the
word that I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you."[4]

[Footnote 1: Matt. x. 34-36; Luke xii. 51-53. Compare Micah vii. 5,
6.]

[Footnote 2: Luke xii. 49. See the Greek text.]

[Footnote 3: John xvi. 2.]

[Footnote 4: John xv. 18-20.]

Carried away by this fearful progression of enthusiasm, and governed
by the necessities of a preaching becoming daily more exalted, Jesus
was no longer free; he belonged to his mission, and, in one sense, to
mankind. Sometimes one would have said that his reason was disturbed.
He suffered great mental anguish and agitation.[1] The great vision of
the kingdom of God, glistening before his eyes, bewildered him. His
disciples at times thought him mad.[2] His enemies declared him to be
possessed.[3] His excessively impassioned temperament carried him
incessantly beyond the bounds of human nature. He laughed at all human
systems, and his work not being a work of the reason, that which he
most imperiously required was "faith."[4] This was the word most
frequently repeated in the little guest-chamber. It is the watchword
of all popular movements. It is clear that none of these movements
would take place if it were necessary that their author should gain
his disciples one by one by force of logic. Reflection leads only to
doubt. If the authors of the French Revolution, for instance, had had
to be previously convinced by lengthened meditations, they would all
have become old without accomplishing anything; Jesus, in like manner,
aimed less at convincing his hearers than at exciting their
enthusiasm. Urgent and imperative, he suffered no opposition: men must
be converted, nothing less would satisfy him. His natural gentleness
seemed to have abandoned him; he was sometimes harsh and
capricious.[5] His disciples at times did not understand him, and
experienced in his presence a feeling akin to fear.[6] Sometimes his
displeasure at the slightest opposition led him to commit
inexplicable and apparently absurd acts.[7]

[Footnote 1: John xii. 27.]

[Footnote 2: Mark iii. 21, and following.]

[Footnote 3: Mark iii. 22; John vii. 20, viii. 48, and following, x.
20, and