Then, addressing the messengers from John, he said, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard,――how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Then, apparently apprehensive that his disciples might form an unfavorable opinion respecting John, as though he were fickle-minded, having once declared him to be the Messiah, and then in doubt sending to inquire if he were the Messiah, he assured them that John was not “♦a reed shaken by the wind;” that he was not a luxurious man “clothed in soft raiment,” who could be conquered by imprisonment; but that he was one of the most heroic and inflexible of prophets: “among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater.” Continuing his remarks, he said that the scribes and lawyers were like capricious children invited by their playmates to join them in their amusements, but who would play neither at weddings nor funerals. Thus they rejected John because he was too austere, and Jesus because he was not austere enough. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”――“I had read this passage a hundred times,” said John Randolph, “before I perceived its real meaning,――that no lukewarm seeker can become a true Christian.” There were two cities, Chorazin and Bethsaida, in which Jesus had preached his gospel and performed many miracles, and they had not accepted his doctrine. Having enjoyed and rejected such privileges, Jesus declared that it would be more tolerable in the day of judgment for the heathen inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon than for them. Capernaum also received the severest denunciation. These cities have utterly perished: not even their ruins remain. And yet Jesus closed this impressive discourse with the soothing words, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek, and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[13] Notwithstanding the severity with which Jesus denounced the Pharisees, one of them, by the name of Simon, probably somewhat convicted of sin, invited him to dine. Jesus promptly accepted the invitation. While reclining upon a couch at the table, in the Oriental custom, one of the unhappy women of the city, of notoriously bad character, overwhelmed with remorse, came in with a box of precious ointment, and wept so bitterly, that her tears fell upon the feet of Jesus where she knelt. She wiped the tears off with her flowing hair, and anointed his feet with the fragrant ointment. Jesus did not rebuke her.