[Footnote 4:  Matt. ix. 9, and following.]

[Footnote 5:  Matt. v. 46, 47, ix. 10, 11, xi. 19, xviii. 17, xxi. 31, 32; Mark ii. 15, 16; Luke v. 30, vii. 34, xv. 1, xviii. 11, xix. 7; Lucian, Necyomant, ii.; Dio Chrysost., orat. iv., p. 85, orat. xiv., p. 269 (edit.  Emperius); Mishnah, Nedarim, iii. 4.]

[Footnote 6:  Mishnah, Baba Kama, x. 1; Talmud of Jerusalem, Demai, ii. 3; Talmud of Bab., Sanhedrim, 25 b.]

[Footnote 7:  Luke v. 29, and following.]

Jesus owed these numerous conquests to the infinite charm of his person and his speech.  A penetrating word, a look falling upon a simple conscience, which only wanted awakening, gave him an ardent disciple.  Sometimes Jesus employed an innocent artifice, which Joan of Arc also used:  he affected to know something intimate respecting him whom he wished to gain, or he would perhaps recall to him some circumstance dear to his heart.  It was thus that he attracted Nathanael,[1] Peter,[2] and the Samaritan woman.[3] Concealing the true source of his strength—­his superiority over all that surrounded him—­he permitted people to believe (in order to satisfy the ideas of the time—­ideas which, moreover, fully coincided with his own) that a revelation from on high revealed to him all secrets and laid bare all hearts.  Every one thought that Jesus lived in a sphere superior to that of humanity.  They said that he conversed on the mountains with Moses and Elias;[4] they believed that in his moments of solitude the angels came to render him homage, and established a supernatural intercourse between him and heaven.[5]

[Footnote 1:  John i. 48, and following.]

[Footnote 2:  John i. 42.]

[Footnote 3:  John iv. 17, and following.]

[Footnote 4:  Matt. xvii. 3; Mark ix. 3; Luke ix. 30-31.]

[Footnote 5:  Matt. iv. 11; Mark i. 13.]

CHAPTER X.

THE PREACHINGS ON THE LAKE.

Such was the group which, on the borders of the lake of Tiberias, gathered around Jesus.  The aristocracy was represented there by a customs-officer and by the wife of one of Herod’s stewards.  The rest were fishermen and common people.  Their ignorance was extreme; their intelligence was feeble; they believed in apparitions and spirits.[1] Not one element of Greek culture had penetrated this first assembly of the saints.  They had very little Jewish instruction; but heart and good-will overflowed.  The beautiful climate of Galilee made the life of these honest fishermen a perpetual delight.  They truly preluded the kingdom of God—­simple, good, and happy—­rocked gently on their delightful little sea, or at night sleeping on its shores.  We do not realize to ourselves the intoxication of a life which thus glides away in the face of heaven—­the sweet yet strong love which this perpetual contact with Nature gives, and the dreams of these nights passed