rash determination to make
him king was possible to the Galilean multitudes, and that whenever it
should come it must be followed by a disillusionment. Now the open
ministry had run its course. As the multitudes were turning back and
walking no more with him, he turned to the twelve with the question, "Will
ye also go away?" and found that with them his method had borne fruit.
They clung to him in spite of disillusionment, for in him they had found
what was better than their preconceptions.

148. It is the fourth gospel that shows clearly the critical significance
of this event. The others tell nothing of the sudden determination of the
multitude, nor of the revulsion of feeling that followed Jesus' refusal to
yield to their will. Yet these other gospels indicate in their narratives
that from this time on Jesus avoided the scenes of his former labors, and
show that when from time to time he returned to the neighborhood of
Capernaum he was met by such a spirit of hostility that he withdrew again
immediately to regions where he and his disciples could have time for
quiet intercourse.

149. The months of toil in Galilee show results hardly more significant
than the grain of mustard seed or the little leaven. Popular enthusiasm
had risen, increased, reached its climax, and waned. Official opposition
had early been aroused, and had continued with a steadily deepened
intensity. The wonderful teaching with authority, and the signs wrought on
them that were sick, had been as seed sown by the wayside or in thorny or
in stony ground, except for the little handful of hearers who had felt the
personal power of Jesus and had surrendered to it, ready henceforth to
follow where he should lead, whether or not it should be in a path of
their choice. These, however, were the proof that those months had been a
time of rewarded toil.

IV

The Ministry in Galilee--The New Lesson

150. With the crisis in Capernaum the ministry in Galilee may be said in
one sense to have come to an end. Yet Jesus did not immediately go up to
Jerusalem. Once and again he was found in or near Capernaum, while the
time between these visits was spent in regions to the north and northwest.
In fact, the disciples were far from ready for the trial their loyalty was
to meet before they had seen the end of the opposition to their Lord. The
time intervening between the collapse of popularity and Jesus' final
departure from Galilee may well be thought of