in that the
former stayed in one spot, and the crowds had to go out to him, while
the very genius of Christ's mission expressed itself in that this
shepherd king sought the sad and sick, and 'went about in all Galilee.'
Observe, too, that He teaches and preaches the good news of the kingdom,
before He heals. John's proclamation of the kingdom had been so charged
with threatenings and mingled with fire that it could scarcely be called
a 'gospel'; but here that joyous word, used for the first time, is in
place. As the tidings came from Christ's lips, they were good tidings,
and to proclaim them was His first task. The miracles of healing came
second. They were not 'the bell before the sermon,' but the benediction
after it. They flowed from Christ in rich abundance. The eager
receptiveness of the people, ignorant as it was, was greater then than
ever afterwards. Therefore the flow of miraculous power was more
unimpeded. But it may be questioned whether we generally have an
adequate notion of the immense number of Christ's miracles. Those
recorded are but a small proportion of those done. There were more
grapes in the vineyards of Eshcol than the messengers brought in
evidence to the camp. Our Lord's miracles are told by units; they seem
to have been wrought by scores. These early ones were not only
attestations of His claim to be the King, but illustrations of the
nature of His kingdom He had conquered and bound the strong man, and now
He was 'spoiling his house.' They were parables of His higher work on
men's souls, which He comes to cleanse from the oppression of demons,
from the foamings of epilepsy, from impotence as to doing right. They
were tokens of the inexhaustible fountain of power, and of the swift and
equally inexhaustible treasures of sympathy, which dwelt in Him. They
were His first trophies in His holy war, His first gifts to His
subjects.

Thus compassed with enthusiasm, and shedding on the wearied new hopes,
and on the sick unwonted health, and stirring in sluggish souls some
aspirations that greatened and inspired, the King appeared. But no
illusions deceived His calm prescience. From the beginning He knew the
path which stretched before Him; and while the transient loyalty of the
ignorant shouted hosannas around His steps, He saw the cross at the end,
and the sight did not make Him falter.

THE NEW SINAI

'And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He
was set, His dis