The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

282 FAITH TRIUMPHANT
towards the dread tragedy of Calvary. Two days'
journey from the Lake of Gennesaret, He stood on
the strip of level ground which divides the hills of
Galilee from the sea, and looked down on the factories,
mansions, palaces, and public buildings of Tyre and
Sidon, the two great workshops of the East. The
populations of those cities were an accursed race.
They came from the Canaanites of the old time, they
were worshippers of Baal and Ashtoreth, by whose
obscene rites Israel had often been beguiled into
shameful sin, and to the later generations of the
Jews, they were a people outcast from God and all
spiritual
privilege.
It is not said that Jesus passed into the heathen
territory. It is more probable that He stayed on the
borderland.
There many Jews resided, carrying on
extensive commerce with their heathen neighbours.
But the fame of Jesus had spread thither, and it was
speedily buzzed abroad that the Prophet of Galilee
was in
the neighbourhood.
It was quite true that the mission of Jesus was
primarily to the Jews. They had been under preparatory
training for Christ for many centuries.
Humble, meek, unsophisticated souls among them
were ready to hail the Christ, even though He came
in unkingly guise. But the mass of them were
hardened in prejudice, in spiritual pride, and ritualistic
righteousness. Therefore they saw no Christ in
Jesus, but a teacher who ruthlessly denounced their
hypocrisy and formalism. If they had with readiness
recognised the credentials of Jesus, and owned
Him as their long-expected Messiah, the world
would have had a nation of missionaries, proclaiming