i. 20, 25, 30, 32.]

[Footnote 3: John vii. 50, and following.]

The city, as we have already said, displeased Jesus. Until then he had
always avoided great centres, preferring for his action the country
and the towns of small importance. Many of the precepts which he gave
to his apostles were absolutely inapplicable, except in a simple
society of humble men.[1] Having no idea of the world, and accustomed
to the kindly communism of Galilee, remarks continually escaped him,
whose simplicity would at Jerusalem appear very singular.[2] His
imagination and his love of Nature found themselves constrained within
these walls. True religion does not proceed from the tumult of towns,
but from the tranquil serenity of the fields.

[Footnote 1: Matt. x. 11-13; Mark vi. 10; Luke x. 5-8.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 3, xxvi. 18; Mark xi. 3, xiv. 13, 14; Luke
xix. 31, xxii. 10-12.]

The arrogance of the priests rendered the courts of the temple
disagreeable to him. One day some of his disciples, who knew Jerusalem
better than he, wished him to notice the beauty of the buildings of
the temple, the admirable choice of materials, and the richness of the
votive offerings that covered the walls. "Seest thou these buildings?"
said he; "there shall not be left one stone upon another."[1] He
refused to admire anything, except it was a poor widow who passed at
that moment, and threw a small coin into the box. "She has cast in
more than they all," said he; "for all these have of their abundance
cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in
all the living that she had."[2] This manner of criticising all he
observed at Jerusalem, of praising the poor who gave little, of
slighting the rich who gave much,[3] and of blaming the opulent
priesthood who did nothing for the good of the people, naturally
exasperated the sacerdotal caste. As the seat of a conservative
aristocracy, the temple, like the Mussulman _haram_ which succeeded
it, was the last place in the world where revolution could prosper.
Imagine an innovator going in our days to preach the overturning of
Islamism round the mosque of Omar! There, however, was the centre of
the Jewish life, the point where it was necessary to conquer or die.
On this Calvary, where certainly Jesus suffered more than at Golgotha,
his days passed away in disputation and bitterness, in the midst of
tedious controversies respecting canonical law and exegesis, for which
his great moral el