to His
proclamation, and in language that could not be forgotten or
misinterpreted, He now declared Himself. He knew He must attract the
attention of the authorities, and His entrance was a direct challenge to
them.

What was it then that with such deliberation and such publicity He meant
to proclaim? What was it that in these last critical hours of His life,
when He knew He should have few more opportunities of speaking to the
people, He sought to impress upon them? What was it that, when free from
the solicitations of men and the pressure of circumstances, He sought
to declare? It was that He was the Messiah. There might be those in the
crowd who did not understand what was meant. There might be persons who
did not know Him, or who were incompetent judges of character, and
supposed He was a mere enthusiast carried away by dwelling too much on
some one aspect of Old Testament prophecy. In every generation there are
good men who become almost crazed upon some one topic, and sacrifice
everything to the promotion of one favourite hope. But however He might
be misjudged, there can be no question of His own idea of the
significance of His action. He claims to be the Messiah.

Such a claim is the most stupendous that could be made. To be the
Messiah is to be God's Viceroy and Representative on earth, able to
represent God adequately to men, and to bring about that perfect
condition which is named "the kingdom of God." The Messiah must be
conscious of ability perfectly to accomplish the will of God with man,
and to bring men into absolute harmony with God. This is claimed by
Jesus. He stands in His sober senses and claims to be that universal
Sovereign, that true King of men, whom the Jews had been encouraged to
expect, and who when He came would reign over Gentiles as well as Jews.
By this demonstration, to which His previous career had been naturally
leading up, He claims to take command of earth, of this world in all its
generations, not in the easier sense of laying down upon paper a
political constitution fit for all races, but in the sense of being able
to deliver mankind from the source of all their misery and to lift men
to a true superiority. He has gone about on earth, not secluding Himself
from the woes and ways of men, not delicately isolating Himself, but
exposing Himself freely to the touch of the malignities, the
vulgarities, the ignorance and wickedness of all; and He now claims to
rule all this, and implies