228 WAITING. 



power of God. The high priest tore his robes in 

 horror ; false prophecy and blasphemy had been 

 uttered to his face. 



After the execution of Jesus his disciples did not 

 return to Galilee : they waited at Jerusalem for his 

 second coming. They believed that he had died as a 

 human sacrifice for the sins of the people, and that he 

 would speedily return with an army of angels to estab- 

 lish the kingdom of God on earth. Already in his 

 lifetime these simple creatures had begun to dispute 

 about the dignities which they should hold at court ; 

 and Jesus, who was not less simple than themselves, 

 had promised that they should sit on twelve thrones, 

 judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He had assured 

 them again and again, in the most positive language, 

 that this event would take place in their own lifetime. 

 " Verily, verily," he" said, " there are some standing 

 here who shall not taste of death till they see the 

 Son of Man coming in his kingdom." They there- 

 fore remained at Jerusalem, and scrupulously followed 

 his commands. They established a community of 

 goods, or at least gave away their superfluities to the 

 poorer members of the church, and had charitable 

 arrangements for relieving the sick. They admitted 

 proselytes with the ceremony of baptism. At the 

 evening repast which they held together, they broke 

 bread and drank wine in a certain solemn manner, as 

 Jesus had been wont to do, and as they especially 

 remembered he did at the last supper. But in all 

 respects they were Jews just as Jesus himself had 

 been a Jew. They attended divine service in the 

 temple ; they offered up the customary sacrifices ; 

 they kept the Sabbath ; they abstained from forbidden 

 meats. They held merely the one dogma, that Jesus 



