t so hard to imagine anything else, that we do
not readily grasp what a revolution he made--here as always by
referring men's thoughts back to the standard of God's thoughts, and
supporting what he taught by what he was.

Mark has given us one of our most familiar pictures of Jesus sitting
with a little child on his knee and "in the crook of his arm." (The
Greek participle which gives this in Mark 9:36 and 10:16 is worth
remembering--it is vivid enough.) Mothers brought their children to
him, "that he should put his hands on them and pray" (Matt. 19:13).
Matthew (21:15) says that children took part in the Triumphal Entry;
and Jesus, clear as he was how little the Hosannas of the grown
people meant, seems to have enjoyed the children's part in the
strange scene. Classical literature, and Christian literature of
those ages, offer no parallel to his interest in children. The
beautiful words, "suffer little children to come unto me," are his,
and they are characteristic of him (Matt. 19:14); and he speaks of
God's interest in children (Matt. 18:14)--once more a reference of
everything to God to get it in its true perspective. How Jesus likes
children!--for their simplicity (Luke 18:17), their intuition, their
teachableness, we say. But was it not, perhaps, for far simpler and
more natural reasons just because they were children, and little,
and delightful? We forget his little brothers and sisters, or we
eliminate them for theological purposes.

Jesus lays quite an unexpected emphasis on sheer tenderness--on
kindness to neighbour and stranger, the instinctive humanity that
helps men, if it be only by the swift offer of a cup of cold water
(Matt. 10:42). The Good Samaritan came as a surprise to some of his
hearers (Luke 10:30). "It is our religion," said a Hindu to a
missionary, to explain why he and other Hindus did not help to
rescue a fainting man from the railway tracks, nor even offer water
to restore him, when the missionary had hauled him on to the
platform unaided. Not so the religion of Jesus--"bear ye one
another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," wrote Paul
(Gal. 6:2)--"pursue hospitality" (Rom. 12:13; the very word runs
through the Epistles of the New Testament). And, as we shall see in
a later chapter, the Last Judgement itself turns on whether a man
has kindly instincts or not. Matthew quotes (12:20) to describe
Jesus' own tenderness the impressive phrase of Isaiah (42:3), "A
bruised reed shall he