The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 282

admitte.nce, they were, by a significant symbolic act, to express their renunciation of all intercourse with persons guilty of such churlish rudeness or barbarous want or hospitality. 1'hey had rejected them, though they went in their Master's name; and, rejeoting them, they rejected the Master who sent them, and thus cut themselves off from future opportunities of blessing. IV. THE DOOTRINE THEY PREACIIED. Above all was the great doctrine which 'they preached. That doctrine was repentance-the doctrine which our Lord's fore- runner had proclaimed before; the doctrine which our Lord himself reiterated; the doctrine which, joined to faith, became afterwards one of the elements in that twofold apostolic testimony, when, after their Lord's resurrection and ascension, the apostles went forth, declaring" repentance toward God, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ." While thus busied in seeking the salvation of men's soul;i, they did not neglect the sufferings of the body; but cast out devils and healed the sick, using oil, if not medicinally, at least symbolically, to establish a point of contact or connection between them and their patients.-J. J. G. Vers. 14-29. Parallel passages: Matt. xiv. 1, 2; 6-12; Luke iL 7-9.-The murder of the Baptist. I. CONJECTURES ABOUT CHRIST, The name of Jesus had now attained great celebrity; it was fast becoming a household word; the cures he had effected, the demons he had ejected from human bodies, the dead he had raised-his wonderful works were on every tongue. Some detracted, others wondered, but most applauded. The missionary tour of the apostles, brief as it was, had given fresh currency and wider diffusion to reports already.circulated far and near. His fame had made its way into the court of the tetrarch, and thus reached the ears of royalty itself. The personality of the great Wonder-worker was keenly canvassed; conjectures were rife on the subject. Some affirmed he was Elias, who had come as the forerunner of Messiah ; others, not seeing their way to go so far as to accept him for the Prophet long expected, or even the precursor of that great Prophet, simply asserted he was a prophet; while some fancied that, after a long and dreary interval, a new era of prophetic activity was ()Ommencing, and so that a person like one of the old prophets had appeared. II. CoNSOIENCE STRONGER THAN CREED. Such were the conjectures afloat, and such the conflicting opinions of the people. Not so Herod; other thoughts stirred within him; something more than mere curiosity was at work in his case; he was startled.- thoroughly perplexed, and quite at a loss (8171,r&p .., St. Luke) to know what to think of the matter. In his extreme perplexity and agitation he expressed his opinion in a very surprising manner, and in the following very striking and abrupt words:-" ,vhom I myself beheaded-John: he is risen from the dead;" adding," And on this account mighty powers operate in him." What a wonderful evidence of the power of conscience we have here I Herod, we have good reason to believe, was a Sadducee, for" the leaven of Herod,'' mentioned by St. Mark (viii. 15), is identified with "the leaven of the Sadducees" spoken of in the Gospel of St. Matthew (xvi. 6). The Sadducees denied tbe existence of angel or spirit, and also the resurrection of the dead; and yet this loose- living, unbelieving Sadducee fell back at once on an article of belief which he had all his life denied. 1'he power of conscience had overmastered his creed. His guilty ()onscience had conjured up before him the murdered man as restored to life, and returning, as it were, with power from the spirit-world. ill. A PARALLEL CABE. A somewhat similar instance of the mighty power of that monitor within occurs in an instructive narre.tive in the forty-second chapter of the Book of Genesis. When Joseph, before makine1 himself known to his brethren, had put them in ward three days, and subsequently ~eleased them on condition of retaining: one as a hostage till the rest returned with their youngest brother, in proof of their good faith and of their being true men and no spies, "they said one to another, 'Ne are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not bear; therefore is this distress come upon us." There was nothing npparently in the circumstances of the case, unpleasant as those circum- stances were, nor in the condition imposed on them, hanl as it seemed, to remind them of their cruel tr,eatment of their long-lost brother-nothing to recall his memory, absolutely nothing, _save the still, sme.ll voice within ; in other words, the power of a guilty conscience. 280 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [cH. v1. 1-5B.