[Footnote 7:  Mark xi. 12-14, 20, and following.]

It was not that his virtue deteriorated; but his struggle for the ideal against the reality became insupportable.  Contact with the world pained and revolted him.  Obstacles irritated him.  His idea of the Son of God became disturbed and exaggerated.  The fatal law which condemns an idea to decay as soon as it seeks to convert men applied to him.  Contact with men degraded him to their level.  The tone he had adopted could not be sustained more than a few months; it was time that death came to liberate him from an endurance strained to the utmost, to remove him from the impossibilities of an interminable path, and by delivering him from a trial in danger of being too prolonged, introduce him henceforth sinless into celestial peace.

CHAPTER XX.

OPPOSITION TO JESUS.

During the first period of his career, it does not appear that Jesus met with any serious opposition.  His preaching, thanks to the extreme liberty which was enjoyed in Galilee, and to the number of teachers who arose on all hands, made no noise beyond a restricted circle.  But when Jesus entered upon a path brilliant with wonders and public successes, the storm began to gather.  More than once he was obliged to conceal himself and fly.[1] Antipas, however, did not interfere with him, although Jesus expressed himself sometimes very severely respecting him.[2] At Tiberias, his usual residence, the Tetrarch was only one or two leagues distant from the district chosen by Jesus for the centre of his activity; he heard speak of his miracles, which he doubtless took to be clever tricks, and desired to see them.[3] The incredulous were at that time very curious about this class of illusions.[4] With his ordinary tact, Jesus refused to gratify him.  He took care not to prejudice his position by mingling with an irreligious world, which wished to draw from him an idle amusement; he aspired only to gain the people; he reserved for the simple, means suitable to them alone.

[Footnote 1:  Matt. xii. 14-16; Mark iii. 7, ix. 29, 30.]

[Footnote 2:  Mark viii. 15; Luke xiii. 32.]

[Footnote 3:  Luke ix. 9, xxiii. 8.]

[Footnote 4:  Lucius; attributed to Lucian, 4.]

On one occasion the report was spread that Jesus was no other than John the Baptist risen from the dead.  Antipas became anxious and uneasy;[1] and employed artifice to rid his dominions of the new prophet.  Certain Pharisees, under the pretence of regard for Jesus, came to tell him that Antipas was seeking to kill him.  Jesus, notwithstanding his great simplicity, saw the snare, and did not depart.[2] His peaceful manners, and his remoteness from popular agitation, ultimately reassured the Tetrarch and dissipated the danger.

[Footnote 1:  Matt. xiv. 1, and following; Mark vi. 14, and following; Luke ix. 7, and following.]