Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/114

106 mountain by night, to meditate on the greatness of the Lord and how He hath exalted the Son of man, according as it is written, "I will consider thy heavens, even the works of thy fingers, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained:" and "these very words," said Nathaniel, "I heard the Prophet but yesterday repeat, when we were upon the top of yonder mountain." Hereat the Scribes murmured the more, saying that it was not written that any prophet in old times thus took counsel with the heavens after the manner of a Chaldean. But Gorgias the son of Philip murmured for another cause, saying that the Prophet ought not thus to mistrust his followers, nor to be so fearful for his own safety, and that it behooved the friends of Jesus to take him by force, if need be, and to make him a king. And to this Judas of Kerioth consented, and some others.

But to the most of us the words of Gorgias seemed an abomination; for we knew that Jesus did not depart for fear: for indeed fear was not in him. But he desired to be alone because he wished to pray, and because of the burden of his heart. For it grieved him, more than can be told, to see the misery and wretchedness, yea, and the ignorance and the sinfulness of the mixed multitude which pressed round him. All their pains pained him and all their sufferings he suffered, insomuch that more than once I have heard him saying in a low voice to himself, "For them that are hungry I hunger, and for them that are athirst I thirst, and for them that are sick I am sick."

Notwithstanding he was not so much distressed with the pains and diseases of the body as with the pains and diseases of the soul. For the sins of souls seemed to him as real and loathsome as the diseases of the flesh to us; and oftentimes a transgression that would appear slight to us,