painful contrast in the present. Such a verse as that with which, in a well-known Rabbinic
work,58 the meditation for the New Moon of Nisan, the Passover month, closes: 'Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,'59 would recur, and so lead back the mind to
the suggestive symbol of Jacob's vision, and its realisation in 'the age to come.'60
52. v. 47.
53. v. 51.
54. Tanchuma on the passage, ed. Warsh. p. 38 a, b.
55. Corroborative and illustrative passages are here too numerous, perhaps also not
suffic iently important, to be quoted in detail.
56. Ewald imagines that this 'fig -tree' had been in the garden of Nathanael's house at
Cana, and Archdeacon Watkins seems to adopt this view, but, as it seems to me, without
historical ground.
57. So in Tanchuma.
58. Pesiqta.
59. Ps. cxlvi 5; Pesiqta, ed. Buber, p. 62 a.
60. Tanchuma, u. s.
These are, of course, only suppositions; but it might well be that Philip had found him
while still busy with such thoughts. Possibly their outcome, and that quite in accordance
with Jewish belief at the time, may have been, that all that was needed to bring that happy
'age to come' was, that Jacob should become Israel in truth. In such case he would
himself have been ripening for 'the Kingdom' that was at hand. It must have seemed a
startling answer to his thoughts, this announcement, made with the freshness of new and
joyous conviction: 'We have found Him of Whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets,
did write.' But this addition about the Man of Nazareth, the Son o f Joseph,61 would
appear a terrible anti-climax. It was so different from anything that he had associated
either with the great hope of Israel, or with the Nazareth of his own neighbourhood, that
his exclamation, without implying any special imputation on the little town which he
knew so well, seems not only natural, but, psychologically, deeply true. There was but
one answer to this - that which Philip made, which Jesus had made to Andrew and John,
and which has ever since been the best answer to all Chris tian inquiry: 'Come and see.'
And, despite the disappointment, there must have been such moving power in the answer
which Philip's sudden announcement had given to his unspoken thoughts, that he went
with him. And now, as ever, when in such spirit we come, evidences irrefragable
multiplied at every step. As he neared Jesus, he heard Him speak to the disciples words
concerning him, which recalled, truly and actually, what had passed in his soul. But could
it really be so, that Jesus knew it all? The question, intended to elicit it, brought such
proof that he could not but burst into the immediate and full acknowledgment: 'Thou art
the Son of God,' Who hast read my inmost being; 'Thou art the King of Israel,' Who dost
meet its longing and hope. And is it not ever so, that the faith of the heart springs to the
lips, as did the water from the riven rock at the touch of the God- gifted rod? It needs not
long course of argumentation, nor intricate chain of evidences, welded link to link, when
the secret thoughts of the heart are laid bare, and its inmost longings met. Then, as in a
moment, it is day, and joyous voice of song greets its birth.