Closely allied to the above-named qualities are prudence and boldness, both of which met in full measure in our Lord’s character.  That he feared no man and shrank from no peril when it was his duty to encounter it, is too obvious to be insisted on.  Yet he never needlessly encountered opposition and danger.  He was never bold for the purpose of making a show of boldness.  When the Jews sought to kill him, he “walked in Galilee” to avoid their enmity.  When his brethren went up to the feast in Jerusalem, he would not go up with them, but afterwards went up, “not openly, but as it were in secret.”  When, at a later day, after the resurrection of Lazarus, the Jews sought his life, he “walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.”  Not until the time had come that he should die for the sins of the world did he expose himself to the rage of his enemies; and then he went boldly into Jerusalem at the head of his disciples.  His own precept, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” he perfectly exemplified throughout his ministry.

We cannot but notice once more the union in our Lord’s character of the greatest tenderness with unbending severity whenever the cause of truth demanded severity.  He opened his ministry at Nazareth by reading from the prophet Isaiah a portraiture of his own character:  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Isa. 61:1, 2.  The execution of this mission required a tender and forbearing spirit, that would not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax; and such was the spirit of his whole ministry.  For the penitent, though publicans and sinners, he had only words of kindness.  Towards the infirmities and mistakes of his sincere disciples he was wonderfully forbearing.  When a strife had arisen among the apostles which of them should be the greatest, instead of denouncing in severe terms their foolish ambition, he called to himself a little child and set him in the midst, and from him gave them a lesson on the duty of humility.  Yet this tender and compassionate Jesus of Nazareth, who took little children in his arms and blessed them, who stood and cried, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” and who wept at the grave of Lazarus—­this same Jesus could say to Peter when he would deter Him from the path of duty, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” and could denounce in the presence of all the people the scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses’ seat.  In truth, the most severe denunciations of hypocrisy and wickedness contained in the New Testament and the most awful descriptions of the future punishment of the impenitent fell from our Saviour’s lips.  In his tenderness there was no element of weakness.