Proverbs of the market every people has of its own.  “It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but, after he is gone his way, then he boasteth.”  And the seller has all the variants of caveat emptor ready to retort.  In antiquity, and in the East to-day, apart from machine-made things, we find the same uncertainty in most transactions as to the value of the article, the same eagerness of both seller and buyer to get at the supposed special knowledge of the other, and the same preliminary skirmish of proposal, protest, offer, refusal, and oath.  Jesus stands by the stall, watching some small sale with the bright, earnest eyes which we find so often in the Gospels.  The buyer swears “on his head” that he will not give more than so much; then, “by the altar” he won’t get the thing.  “By the earth” it isn’t worth it; “by the heaven” the seller gave that for it.  So the battle rages, and at last the bargain is struck.  The buyer raises his price; the seller takes less than he gave for the thing; neither has believed the other, but each, as the keen eyes of the onlooker see, feels he has over-reached the other.  Heaven has been invoked—­and what is Heaven?  As the words fell on the listener’s ears, he saw the throne of God, and on it One before whose face Heaven itself and earth will flee away—­and be brought back again for judgement.  And by Heaven, and by Him who sits on the Throne, men will swear falsely for an “anna” or two.  How can they?  It is because “nothings grow something”; the words make a mist about the thing.  In later days Jesus told his followers to swear not at all—­to stick to Yes and No.

Then a leader in the religious world passes, and the loiterers have a new interest for the moment.  “Rabbi, Rabbi,” they say, and the great man moves onward, obviously pleased with the greeting in the marketplace (Matt. 23:7).  As soon as he is out of hearing, it is no longer “Rabbi” he is called; talk turns to another tune.  How little the fine word meant!  How lightly the title was given!  Worse still, the title will stand between a man and the facts of life.  Some will use it to deceive him; others, impressed by it, are silent in his presence; one way and another, the facts are kept from him.  Seeing, he sees not, and he comes to live in an unreal world.  How many men to-day will say what they really think before a man in clerical dress, or a dignitary however trivial?  “Be not ye called ‘Rabbi,’” was the counsel Jesus gave to his followers, and he would accept neither “Rabbi,” nor “Good Master,” nor any other title till he saw how much it meant.  “Master!” they said, “we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man; for thou regardest not the person of men” (Matt. 22:16).  But as the evangelist continues, Jesus “perceived their wickedness”—­he had heard such things before and was not trapped.  “Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10)—­strange to think of the quiet figure, riding in the midst