XXXIII.
WITH THE CHILDREN.
In spite of all our Lord could do and say, the minds
of the Apostles were still full of the coming Kingdom
and of the first places there. Whether it was the
favour shown to the three who had been taken into
the room of Jairus' little daughter when the rest were
left outside, and had been with the Master on the Mount,
where it was plain they had seen something wonderful
and heard some secret which they would not tell the
nine; or whether the great promise made to Peter after
his confession at Cæsarea Philippi had aroused jealousy
among the others, there was a dispute among the Twelve
at this time as to which of them was the greatest.
Andrew was the first called; James and John were
cousins, or, in Jewish language, "brothers" of the
Lord; and John was plainly His best beloved. On the
other hand, Peter was the most noticed by the Master
and was the Rock; Judas came from the south, and
spoke the best, and was better off than the rest. Which
of them, then, was the greatest? This was the kind of
talk among them as they walked one day behind our
Lord on the way to Capharnaum. When they came
to the house He said quietly:
"What did you treat of in the way?"
"But they held their peace," says St. Mark, "for in the way they had disputed among themselves which of them should be the greatest."
At length one bolder than the rest answered the Master's question after a fashion by putting another:
