town -dues, etc.; and, if the peaceable inhabitant, the tiller of the soil, the tradesman, or

manufacturer was constantly exposed to their exactions, the traveller, the caravan, or the

pedlar encountered their vexatious presence at every bridge, along the road, and at the

entrance to cities. Every bale had to be unloaded, and all its contents tumbled about and

searched; even letters were opened; and it must have taken more than Eastern patience

to bear their insolence and to submit to their "unjust accusations" in arbitrarily fixing the

return from land or income, or the value of goods, etc. For there was no use appealing

against them, although the law allowed this, since the judges themselves were the direct

beneficiaries by the revenue; for they before whom accusations on this score would

have to be laid, belonged to the order of knights, who were the very persons implicated

in the farming of the revenue. Of course, the joint-stock company of Publicani at Rome

expected its handsome dividends; so did the tax-gatherers in the provinces, and those

to whom they on occasions sublet the imposts. All wanted to make money of the poor

people; and the cost of the collection had of course to be added to the taxation. We can

quite understand how Zaccheus, one of the supervisors of these tax-gatherers in the

district of Jericho, which, from its growth and export of balsam, must have yielded a

large revenue, should, in remembering his past life, have at once said: "If I have taken

anything from any man by false accusation"--or, rather, "Whatever I have wrongfully

exacted of any man." For nothing was more common than for the publican to put a

fictitious value on property or income. Another favourite trick of theirs was to advance

the tax to those who were unable to pay, and then to charge usurious interest on what

had thereby become a private debt. How summarily and harshly such debts were

exacted, appears from the New Testament itself. In Matthew 18:28 we read of a creditor

who, for the small debt of one hundred denars, seizes the debtor by the throat in the

open street, and drags him to prison; the miserable man, in his fear of the consequences,

in vain falling down at his feet, and beseeching him to have patience, in not exacting

immediate full payment. What these consequences were, we learn from the same parable,

where the king threatens not only to sell off all that his debtor has, but even himself, his

wife, and children into slavery (v 25). And what short shrift such an unhappy man had

to expect from "the magistrate," appears from the summary procedure, ending in

imprisonment till "the last mite" had been paid, described in Luke 12:58.

However, therefore, in far-off Rome, Cicero might describe the Publicani as "the flower

of knighthood, the ornament of the state, and the strength of the republic," or as "the

most upright and respected men," the Rabbis in distant Palestine might be excused for

their intense dislike of "the publicans," even although it went to the excess of declaring

them incapable of bearing testimony in a Jewish court of law, of forbidding to receive

their charitable gifts, or even to change money out of their treasury (Baba K. x. 1), of

ranking them not only with harlots and heathens, but with highwaymen and murderers

(Ned. iii. 4), and of even declaring them excommunicate. Indeed, it was held lawful to

make false returns, to speak untruth, or almost to use any means to avoid paying taxes

(Ned. 27 b; 28 a). And about the time of Christ the burden of such exactions must have

been felt all the heavier on account of a great financial crisis in the Roman Empire (in the

year 33 or our era), which involved so many in bankruptcy, and could not have been

without its indirect influence even upon distant Palestine.

Of such men--despised Galileans, unlettered fishermen, excommunicated publicans--

did the blessed Lord, in His self-humiliation, choose His closest followers, His special

apostles! What a contrast to the Pharisaical notions of the Messiah and His kingdom!

What a lesson to show, that it was not "by might nor by power," but by His Spirit, and

that God had chosen the base things of this world, and things that were despised, to

confound things that were mighty! Assuredly, this offers a new problem, and one harder

of solution than many others, to those who would explain everything by natural causes.

Whatever they may say of the superiority of Christ's teaching to account for his

success, no religion could ever have been more weig hted; no popular cause could ever

have presented itself under more disadvantageous circumstances than did the Gospel of

Christ to the Jews of Palestine. Even from this point of view, to the historical student