y wonder that, when Jesus began to teach and do cures, the
people asked one another if this might not be the Messiah, and that
they sometimes tried to make him a leader to free them from the
Romans? To understand what the people thought of Jesus and how Jesus
talked to the people, one must know how this hope of the Messiah was
all the time in the people's minds. They were ever saying, "Is not
this the Messiah?" Jesus was ever answering, "Not the Messiah you
expect." They were ever asking him, "Will you now found the kingdom?"

{21}{22}

[Illustration]
GATHERING TARES IN THE STONY FIELDS NEAR BETHEL.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.

This would look like a very scanty harvest to eyes accustomed to
fruitful fields. There are four species of tares in Palestine. The
seeds are poisonous to man and to beasts, producing serious sickness
and sometimes death. They are, however, harmless to fowls and are
sold as food for poultry. It is customary to gather out the tares
when the grain is nearly ready for harvest. Then the women and
children go into the fields and carefully remove not only the tares
but all the weeds as well.
[End illustration]

{23}

Jesus was ever replying, "The kingdom of God is not outward, with
courts and armies and a great parade. It is inward, and means obeying
the will of God." So Jesus lived in that busy world of his day, but
few understood him. At last, because he would not be the kind of a
Messiah they wanted, they crucified him. About forty years after this,
the busy, proud people attempted to fight the Romans. They were
defeated, and Jerusalem was taken. The temple was burned, the stone
walls were thrown down, and the Jews were killed or sent away. So the
story of Palestine and of its great hope ends very sadly for the Jews,
who so looked and longed for their freedom. But we shall always love
the land where the Lord Jesus lived and the people among whom he
worked, because he loved them so much himself.

{24}

[Illustration]
Map of Palestine at the time of the New Testament.
[End illustration]

{25}

IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold;
Peace on the earth, good-will to men.
From heaven's all-gracious King;
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the