hing and spirit, they were cutting their
moorings from the religion of their fathers. They remained loyal to the
law, they were constant in the worship; but they had poured new wine into
the bottles, and in time it proved the inadequacy of the old forms and
revolutionized the world's religious life.

Part III

The Minister

I

The Friend of Men

223. In nothing does the contrast between Jesus and John the Baptist
appear more clearly than in their attitude towards common social life.
John had his training and did his work apart from the homes of men. The
wilderness was his chosen and fit scene of labor. From this solitude he
sent forth his summons and warning to his people. They who sought him for
fuller teaching went after him and found him where he was. They then
returned to their homes and their work, leaving the prophet with his few
disciples in their seclusion. With Jesus it was otherwise. His first act,
after attaching to himself a few followers, was to go into Galilee to the
town of Cana, and there with them to partake in the festivities of a
wedding. While it is true that most of his teaching was by the wayside,
among the hills, or by the sea, it is still a surprise to discover how
often his ministry found its occasion as he was sitting at table in the
house of some friend, real or feigned. The genuine friendships of Jesus as
they appear in the gospels are among the most characteristic features of
his life--witness the home at Bethany, the women who followed him even to
the cross, and ministered to him of their substance, and the "beloved
disciple." Jesus calls attention to this contrast between himself and
John, reminding the people how some of the scornful pointed the finger at
himself as "a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners." He received his training as a carpenter while John was in his
wilderness solitude. Men who would probably have stood with admiration
before John had he visited their synagogue, found Jesus too much one of
themselves, and would none of him as a prophet (Mark vi. 2, 3).

224. A like contrast sets Jesus apart from the scribes of his day. These
were revered by the people, in part perhaps because they held the common
folk in such contempt. Their attitude was frank--"this multitude which
knoweth not the law is accursed" (John vii. 49). The popular enthusiasm
for Jesus filled them with scorn, until it began to give them alarm. They
were