Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/297

Rh him by name. Then would he fume and rage and depart in anger, and avoid the rest for many hours together. But when he came among the disciples, he would sow strife among us with speech of passion and jealousy; so that he was, as it were, a thorn in the side of the Master.

All this Jesus perceived, and grieved thereat. Yet he said nothing. And, as it seemed to me, his grief for Judas was swallowed up in another and a larger grief; which I understood not then, but now I understand in part. For Jesus at this time began to see more and more clearly that all or almost all in Israel should reject him; and that his disciples should prove faithless, at least for a time; and that he should bring troubles and sorrows and wars upon the earth, as well as joy and peace; and that the day of Deliverance and Redemption was further off than had been supposed. Howbeit, for all this, he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from the going up to Jerusalem: for he knew that the Lord God had an errand for him there; and that his death was to be for the life of men: and that the Lord would in the end give him the victory over all his enemies.

On the fourth day of the month Nisan, being (as I said above) the tenth day before the Passover, we set forth again on our journey to Jerusalem, and much people went with us. And when we came down from the mountains to Jordan, even to the fords of the river, then some expected that Jesus should have stretched out his hand and dried up the river, even as a certain Egyptian false prophet had lately promised to do; and likewise Elias in old times had dried up Jordan, and it had been also dried up at the word of the priests when Joshua passed over. (For both now, and before, and for a long time after, the minds of all in Israel were ready to expect any sign howsoever strange and monstrous, and to follow any that would profess to