preached in heathen lands, or in the ruined seaports of Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.  Had I taught in Sodom and Gomorrah, those towns would still be standing.  But these places here in Galilee are sunk in a quagmire of shame; they scorn their Prophet.  When the day of reckoning comes, it will go worse with this land than with those towns.  My poor Bethsaida, and thou, fair Magdala!  And thou, Capernaum the beautiful!  How I loved you, My people, how highly did I honour you; I desired to lift you to Heaven.  And now you sink in the abyss.  Pray to him, your Mammon, in the days of your need; there will be no other consolation for you.  Carouse, laugh, and be cruel to-day; to-morrow you will be hungry and you will groan:  Ah, we have delayed too long!  Believe me a day will come when you fain would justify your lives to Me, crying:  ’Lord, we would willingly have given you food, drink, and lodging, but you did not come to us.’  But I did come to you.  I came in the starving, the thirsty, the homeless, only you would not recognise Me.  I will not accuse you to the Heavenly Father, but Moses, whose commandments you have broken, will accuse you.  And when you appeal to the Father, He will say:  ‘I know you not.’”

The disciples trembled and were terrified in mind and soul when He spoke those angry words.  But they were not surprised, for the people had sunken very low.

He woke His comrades in one of the next nights and said:  “Get up and let the others sleep; they will not go with us, our way is too hard.  Enemies will be on us.  Whoever of you fears, let him lie down again.”  Many did lie down again, and those who went with the Master numbered twelve.

They wandered over the heights of Cana, over the mountains of Gischala till close on midnight, and then again till sundown.  The disciples knew not whither they were going; it was enough that they were with Him.  On the way they found many of the same mind, and also some who invited the Master to their houses for a jest, in order to be able to say:  I am acquainted with Him.  Men of good position were among those who listened to His words with the greatest attention, and then haggled with Him to see if the Kingdom of Heaven could not be had at a cheaper price than the world.  He always answered:  “What use is the world to you if you have no soul!  Herein alone is the secret of salvation; a man must find his soul and preserve it, and raise it to the Father.”  Or, as He put it differently:  “God is to be found in the spirit!”

And when the stranger audience asked what “in the spirit” meant, the apostles explained:  “He means spiritual life.  He would not have man live his life merely in the flesh; man’s real self.  He teaches, is a spiritual reality, and the more a man works spiritually and lives in ideas which are not of the earth, the nearer he comes to God, who is wholly spirit.”

“Then,” said they, “men learned in the law are nearer to God than the workers in the field.”  To which John replied:  “A man learned in the law who depends only on the letter is far from the spirit.  The labourer who does not draw a profit from the land but thinks and imagines how to improve it, is near the spirit.”