334
CITY
CLAIM
half-Greek, half-Samaritan, wholly alien, there- fore, in sympathy from the Jews, alike through the Samaritan hostility and tlie Greek culture. Tlie city of Sychar (Jn 4^*), the scene of our Lord's con- versation with the Samuiiiiii wdiiiHii, is generally identified with the modem .1 " -1 / " , at the foot of Mt. Ebal, about a mile ii.,m Nal.lus (Shechem). Judaea, with its desolate 111' ■until 111 r.ni-es. was never rich in cities. Jericho lay ■•n it- licKlei^, --ituated in an oasis of remarkalile hiiiluy. ,i my ei lulm-., in striking contrast to lie' -i.my ainl lian.ii I'-iun of which it was the gateway. .leri.U., « a- neh in the natural wealth of the East, but singularly poor in heroic memories.
But to the Jew the city of cities— the city tliat symbolized all that was highest alike in liis poli- tical and religious aspirations — was Jerusalem. Twice in St. Alatthew's Gospel is Jerusalem called 'the holy city' (Mt 4" 27"), and as such it was enslirined in every Jewish heart through the noble poetry of the Psalter. It was the city wliere God had His chosen seat, and round which clustered the heroic traditions of the Hebrew race— the city, indeed, with which was intertwined the very con- ception of Judaism as a national religion, for in the Temple of Jerusalem alone could (iod be wor- .shipped with the rites He had Himself ordained. The cities of Galilee owed their greatness and importance to commercial or political causes. Though some were preponderantly Jewish, and others, such as Tiberias, almost exclusively Gen- tile, there was yet in them all a mingling of races and a tolerably free and humane intercourse. Samaria was a great Roman strongliold, dominat- ing the main trade-route from Cc-esarea on the coast to the East. But Jerusalem remained a city of the Jews, cherishing its own ecclesiastical tradi- tions, and holding its "patriotic exclusiveness with a narrowness all the greater from the pressure of the Roman subjection. It had almost complete autonomy under the Sanhedrin. Cassarea was the seat of tlie Roman Procurator, except during the great Jewish feasts, when he found it necessary to reside at Jerusalem to restrain the turbulence of a fanatically patriotic people who were ready to court martyrdom for the national causie. It is perhaps signilicant, as showing the ecclesiastical character of the population of Jerusalem, that it was a priest and a Levite who first passed the man lying wounded and bleeding on tlie road to Jericho (Lk lO^"-).
In the time of our Lord, then, tlie Jews had made the transition from a life mainly pastoral and agricultural to the more advanced life of the city. The Twelve ami the Seventy are sent to preach the eo-iirl in .ite-. and w'hen they are persecuted in on- rit\ lliey are to ilee to another (Mt lO"'-'-'^, Lk lu'i. •le-iw, after He had given instructions to the Twelve, departs to preach and to teach in their cities (Mt 11'). The concep- tion of the city as the flower and fruit of the highest civilization is emerging, and the dvitn.'s Dei is taking the place of the reqnvm Dei, and thus bringing Hebrew into line with Greek ideals. This fact is very significant for the modern presen- tation of the gospel. It is sometimes assumed that Christianity is possible only for a primitive community, and many modem ideals of communal life are based on the supposition that the city is wholly an artificial product, and that the way of true progi-ess lies in reverting to village com- munities. All through the Christian centuries there lias been a tendency on the part of many who have felt with singular intensity the influence of .Jesus, to seek the cultivation of the Christian life either in isolation or in mthdrawing them- selves from the strenuous civic activities. The Cliristian ideal of saintship has been largely that
of the cloister. But it is becoming more and more realized that Jesus lived His life in a crowd, that He was so seldom alone that occasions when He sought solitude are specially noted, and that it was the sight of great lua^-e^ c,f |.ei>[ile that most powerfully touched Hi. . moiin,,- , Mi 14", Lk 19-"). The gospel of Jesus i- r~-eiiiiall\ a social gospel. Its ideal is a civic iileal. li- lu'eeepts have no meaning and no applicability except to those who are living in a community. Its ultimate goal is the ' holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband ' (Rev 21-). The fact is noteworthy as showing the place and influence of Cliristianity in the natural evolution of liumanity. For the history of civilization is the history of cities. Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, Alexandria, Venice, Florence, and the mediteval cities all mark stages in the development of the higher culture of the race. The modern city, indeed, still lacks its raison d'etre. It is as yet a liuge amorphous entity, presenting problems which, so far from finding solution, are only now begin- ning to be fully faced. And the supreme test of the Divine power of the religion of Jesus in our day will lie in its capability of giving to the city rational meaning, of transmuting the blind force of econo- mic pressure to the law of reciprocal harmony, of so applying the principles of the gospel to the marvellous complexities of our civic life as to educe the noblest faculties of the individual while securing the unity of communal existence.