XX.
AT JACOB'S WELL.
When the Pasch was over, our Lord went up and
down the country of Judea preaching and baptizing by
the hands of His disciples. Some take this baptism
to have been, like that of the Precursor, merely a sign
of repentance and of a desire to be cleansed from sin.
Others believe it to have been the Sacrament instituted
by Jesus Christ. The sweetness and attractiveness of
our Blessed Lord drew to Him all hearts that evil passions
had not spoiled, and it seemed as if His Ministry
were beginning happily, when opposition arose from
an unexpected quarter.
St. John the Baptist still continued to preach and baptize, but his work was nearly done, and every day some of his followers left him to become our Lord's disciples, to the great displeasure of those who remained with him. These said to him one day—and we can almost hear the peevish tones of their complaint:
"Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou gavest testimony, behold He baptizeth, and all men come to Him."
Did they not know their master better than this? Did they think he would be jealous of Him who was to come, when his one thought and desire was to prepare hearts for Him? He had called our Lord "the Lamb of God." He gave Him now another beautiful name, and tried to show the troubled disciples that souls were right to go after Him to whom all souls belong as the bride belongs to the bridegroom. "He that hath the bride," he said, "is the Bridegroom, but the friend of
