ed to
the Temple. He was plunged in a sea of conflicting opinions and
voices. On the one hand was the healed man and those who sympathized
with him, in earnest argument concerning the righteousness of the
deed. But arrayed against these few were the good folk of the place
who loudly denounced the Sabbath-breaker and demanded His punishment.
Were the ancient laws of Moses to be thus defied by this presumptuous
Nazarene, whose religious ideas were sadly lacking in orthodoxy?
Surely not! Punish the upstart! And again Jesus was in actual peril of
bodily hurt, or perhaps even death, owing to the religious bigotry of
the orthodox people.

Jesus was ever a foe to the stupid formalism and ignorant fanaticism
regarding "holy days," which is ever a characteristic of certain
classes of mind among people. On the above occasion, as well as upon
other occasions, and notably upon the occasion of the Sabbath when He
directed His hungry disciples to pick corn to satisfy their hunger,
Jesus opposed the strict, ironclad law of Sabbath observance. He was
ever filled with the idea that the "Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath." There was nothing Puritanical about the Master,
and in view of His attitude regarding this matter it is surprising to
witness the attitude of some in our own time who, wearing His livery,
oppose these teachings of His in theory and practice.

And so, driven out once more by the intolerance and bigotry of the
public, Jesus returned again to Galilee, His land of retreat and rest,
and the scene of much of His best work. Galilee was filled with His
many followers and admirers, and He was less in danger of disturbance
and persecution there than in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. Large
congregations attended His ministry there, and His converts were
numbered by the thousand. The village contained many persons healed by
His power, and His name was a household word.

And upon His return He entered into a new stage of His work. He had
decided to divide His ministry among His twelve most advanced
disciples, as it had now reached proportions beyond His ability to
personally control. And, as was customary to Him upon all great
occasions, He sought the solitudes for meditation and spiritual
strength before finally investing His twelve Apostles with the high
authority of their mission. He spent the night on one of the hills
near Capernaum, from which He descended the following morning, wearied
in body from wan