There are not wanting in the Gosjiel narrative incidents which seem to show that Christ inherited this feeling of His countrymen and of His age, at least to some extent. He limits the ministry of His disciples to the villages of Judrea, bidding them avoid the villages of the Samaritans (Mt 10'') ; and in His interview with tiie Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7'-'") He not only i-epeats the limitation given to His disciples as binding also upon Himself, declaring that He was not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but speaks of the woman as a dog, and claims for the Jews that they are tlie children of the household. Contempt could no further go, and the words fall strangely from the Saviour's lips. But without for the moment setting against these passages others in wiiich the sympatiiy of Jesus is seen to be as catholic as it was tender, it may verj- well be argued that these two incidents do not establish exclusiveness in Christ, and in anj' case the exclusiveness broke down and gave way to the very opposite feeling in Him. But. apart from that, it may be shown that the limita- tion in the injunction given to the disciples was due not to any narrowness in the Saviours sym- pathy, but rather to His recognition of the limi- tations of His emissaries. The Apostles, yn\\\ their prejudices strong within them, had scarcely the tact and the culture necessary for tliose who would open the door of faith to the (ientiles, and subse- quent events show how after many a lesson the leader of tlie band. St. Peter himself, was unable fully to recognize the trutii so clearly seen and strongly enforced by St. Paul. At any rate it is most significant that wlien the lessons of Christ's life were drawing to a close the prohibition was taken away, and the Apostles were instructed to
'go into all the world, ar.d make disciples of all the nations' (Mt 2S'^). A far greater difficulty is seen in the story of the SjTophcenician woman. Here the Saviour "s words are so entirely at vari- ance not only with His own act on that occasion, but with the tenderness and courtesj- with which at all other times He dealt with women, that attempts have l>een made from the earliest times to reconcile the contrast between the Spirit of Jesus and His harsh and contemptuous words on the occasion. The words can .scarcely l>e justified even on the supiwsition that it was' a harsh dis- cipline intended to bring out the triumphant faith \ of the woman. We hold that Christ used the words in iiony, and that, feeling the utter false- ness of the leaders and teachers of the Jews, driven in utter weariness from them into Gentile territory, He assumes for the "time Wing the narrow spirit which lielonged to them, that His disciples might see how Pharisaic doctrine looked when reduced to act in dealing with the sorrow and need of the world. He throws into contrast with that doctrine the quick intuition of the woman, as well as the humility of her trust as she declares that even the Gentiles have a place in the family of God. There could be no finer method of revealing to the disciples the contrast between that exclusiveness of spii-it which He had come to destroy, and the larger trust in the all-comprehend- ing love of God which He came to fulfil.
Christ gave, then, to tiie human feeling of pitiful concern for another the univers^xlity which it lacked. And He did this first by His full and generous recognition of good in the alien, whether He found him in the actual commerce of life or in the imaginary scenes which He made to live in parabolic teaching. He had not found in Israel such faith as He found in the centurion (Mt 8'^^-^^), and He closed His tribute to that faith by saying that many should come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God, while the favoured people themselves should be cast out. When He was asked for a detinition of a neighbour. He pointed to a Samar- itan, and described him as possessing qu.alities lacking in priest and Le%-ite (Lk ICF^-). He had .spoken of His own people with a great tenderness as 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10* lo--*), but He extends that tenderness to the Gentile world when He speaks of ' other sheep not of this fold.' He says that they too are His, and them also He must bring (Jn 10'^). Whether He spoke the words to Nicodemus or not, it is clear that John learnt from Him that the love of God was not the exclusive privilege of the Jew, but that God loved 'the world," and that His salvation was within the reach of whosoever should believe (Jn 3^*). In 'the Gospel to the Greeks" He speaks of 'all men" as coming within the attractive power of Himself crucified and ascended (Jn li^-). And when lie gave to His followers His final com- mission, there was no limit to the sphere of their evangelic labours : tney were to ' go into all the world," "to make disciples of all the nations" (Mk 16'\ Mt •28'-'). Christ not only widened the domain of this law of love, pusliing back the boundaries marked out by social custom or selfish expediency or fear, but He also enriched the Liav by giving it a deeper note, an intenser spirit. The ]x>or man for neglect of whom Dives found himself at last in torment, was ' full of sores,' he was licked by the dog. the common scavenger of oH'al. Such was the claimant upon the rich man's kindliness (Lk 16^^). Lowly service touched its lowliest when the Master stooped to the feet of the disciple ( Jn 1'2^). Through- out tiie East the touch of the foot brings defilement and degradation. And when the service had been rendered to His followers. He spoke to them of ' a