ing a period of time which we may estimate at eighteen
months, he avoided going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.[2] At the feast
of Tabernacles of the year 32 (according to the hypothesis we have
adopted), his relations, always malevolent and incredulous,[3] pressed
him to go there. The evangelist John seems to insinuate that there was
some hidden project to ruin him in this invitation. "Depart hence, and
go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou
doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he
himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world." Jesus, suspecting some treachery, at first
refused; but when the caravan of pilgrims had set out, he started on
the journey, unknown to every one, and almost alone.[4] It was the
last farewell which he bade to Galilee. The feast of Tabernacles fell
at the autumnal equinox. Six months still had to elapse before the
fatal denouement. But during this interval, Jesus saw no more his
beloved provinces of the north. The pleasant days had passed away; he
must now traverse, step by step, the painful path that will terminate
only in the anguish of death.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xvi. 20, 21; Mark viii. 30, 31.]

[Footnote 2: John vii. 1.]

[Footnote 3: John vii. 5.]

[Footnote 4: John vii. 10.]

His disciples, and the pious women who tended him, met him again in
Judea.[1] But how much everything was changed for him there! Jesus
was a stranger at Jerusalem. He felt that there was a wall of
resistance he could not penetrate. Surrounded by snares and
difficulties, he was unceasingly pursued by the ill-will of the
Pharisees.[2] Instead of that illimitable faculty of belief, happy
gift of youthful natures, which he found in Galilee--instead of those
good and gentle people, amongst whom objections (always the fruit of
some degree of ill-will and indocility) had no existence, he met there
at each step an obstinate incredulity, upon which the means of action
that had so well succeeded in the north had little effect. His
disciples were despised as being Galileans. Nicodemus, who, on one of
his former journeys, had had a conversation with him by night, almost
compromised himself with the Sanhedrim, by having wished to defend
him. "Art thou also of Galilee?" they said to him. "Search and look:
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."[3]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 55; Mark xv. 41; Luke xxiii. 49, 55.]

[Footnote 2: John vi