Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/314

306 and of this Spirit he spake, at one time as coming from himself, but at another time as coming from his Father; moreover it should come to us, he said, by a certain ordinance, which could not be altered. For just as the ear of wheat cometh not unless the corn of wheat first die, even so his Spirit should not come, except he also should first depart from us.

Hereat Judas brake out in hot anger, "Wherefore, then, go we up to Jerusalem, if our going is to be for naught, and if thou art to depart from us, and if we are to be left as sheep without a shepherd?" Jesus rebuked him not, neither answered as we had expected; but said that it could not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem. Hereat one said, "Nay but, O Master, the prophet John perished not in Jerusalem." But to this Jesus made no answer; but only spake a few words touching the difference between the simplicity of the Galileans and the subtlety of the men of Jerusalem; and he condemned the Scribes of Jerusalem and the priests of the temple, for that they made darkness instead of light, causing all Israel, and even the Galileans, to transgress. He also spake as if Satan reigned in the Holy City, and as if he were shortly going down to do battle there with Satan in Jerusalem. So he seemed to signify that Jerusalem was as it were a field of battle, whereon it was meet and right that a true prophet should die. After this he added, that if he were lifted up in the sight of all men, he should draw all men unto him. This joining together of words diverse in nature, of perishing and lifting up, and of departing and drawing all men unto him, filled us with perplexity; insomuch that Judas said in a low voice that the words of Jesus were like unto oil and vinegar, which cannot be mixed. The rest of us also showed, as I suppose, by our countenances that we understood him not; for he looked