not take place before the latter. It is, however, clear that when the Saviour was arraigned before Caiaphas, it was in the presence of the assembled Sanhedrim. Probably, Jesus was first taken to Annas because he, as president, had the power to convene that council; and as soon as he learnt that Jesus was now safe in custody, he, though it was the middle of the night, called its members together in the house of Caiaphas, and placed Jesus before their tribunal. A transference of the prisoner from one house to the other was easily made, for the palace of Caiaphas appears to have stood on the north-east corner of Mount Zion, while that of Annas, as we have said, was on its southern declivity.

The rulers had determined that Jesus should die. The evangelist John intimates that Caiaphas was influenced by the opinion he had before uttered in the Sanhedrim, that a victim was needful to deliver the people from impending ruin. Some show of justice was indispensable. By the law of Moses, no one could be put to death except on the testimony of two witnesses. Where were these to be found? Beyond a doubt, a requisite so important had not been left for the last exigency to supply. Efforts were made to procure witnesses. The efforts proved fruitless. At last two appeared who deposed to having heard Jesus say, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.' Words similar to these Jesus had spoken, having reference to the temple of his body (John ii. 19, 21). The witnesses, however, wished it to be understood that the words were said in relation to the temple on Mount Moriah, which was held in veneration so profound, that any saying derogatory to it could easily be twisted into a charge of blasphemy or sedition, if not both blasphemy and sedition. The witnesses, however, disagreed in their evidence. The only resource left was to make Jesus condemn himself. For this purpose, Caiaphas had recourse to the extreme means offered by adjuration. If an accused person was solemnly required or adjured in the name of God to make a statement, he was bound to comply. Having, then, first simply asked Jesus what answer he gave to the testimony borne against him, and received no reply, the high-priest added, 'I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Messiah?' Without hesitation, and in terms which were customary among his priestly judges, Jesus replied in the affirmative (comp. Matt. xxvi. 25), appealing in confirmation to events about to come, of which they would be spectators. Affecting to consider this avowal as blasphemy, Caiaphas tore open his breast, in token of his pious indignation, crying out-'What need have we now of witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy; what is your verdict ?' Guilty,' was the prompt reply from every side-' guilty, and the punishment, death.' These unjust judges could no longer restrain their mean rage. Falling on a helpless and condemned

man, they spat in his face, and having covered his eyes and struck him, deridingly bade him tell who gave the blows (Matt. xxvi. 67, 68; Mark xiv. 65).

Yet he opened not his mouth;

As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
He opened not his mouth.-(Is. liii. 7.)

CHAPTER IX.

JESUS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE, WHO, HAVING IN VAIN TRIED TO RESCUE HIM, SENDS HIM TO HEROD ANTIPAS, BY WHOM HE IS SENT BACK TO PILATE, WHO PRONOUNCES HIM INNOCENT, BUT, BEING OVERPOWERED BY THE PRIESTS, DELIVERS HIM TO BE CRUCIFIED.

Six o'clock A. M., Friday, 15th of Nisan, 6th day of the week, April 7th, A. D. 30.

The sentence thus iniquitously pronounced could not be carried into effect unless it first received the sanction of the Roman governor of the land; for the Jews, from the time when Archela'üs was deposed, and their country became subject to Rome, had lost the jus gladii, or right of inflicting capital punishments. The priests, in consequence, had to carry their cause before another tribunal, at which they could not but feel they might possibly fail. That tribunal had for its head the Roman procurator, whose headquarters were ordinarily at Cesare'a, but who was now, according to custom, in Jerusalem, in consequence of its being a time of festival, when uproar, or even insurrection, might need a prompt and vigorous hand. At the present moment the real government of Palestine was in the hands of Pontius Pilatus, the fifth Roman governor of Judea, who, after a rule of ten years, in which he was not more unjust than other procurators, received a command to quit his post (A.D. 36) and go to Rome, to be tried on charges preferred against him by the Jewish authorities. A few years after, he perished by his own hands.

According to John, who uses the very word, the pretorium was the place into which Jesus was conducted (John xviii. 28). This was Pilate's residence in the capital. The pretorium was a military station, the head-quarters of the Roman cohort stationed in Jerusalem. Those head-quarters were taken up in the tower Antonia, which, standing on an elevated spot at the north-west corner of the temple quadrangle, commanded the whole of Jerusalem, especially the temple itself, with all its courts. The spot

where the pretorium stood is believed to be now occupied by the residence of the Turkish governor, the Pasha, of Jerusalem, who has here under his command a body of soldiers. The procurator's hall of audience was within. The Jews, however, would become unclean, and so be prevented from keeping the Passover, if they set foot within a place defiled by being the abode of Pagans. Yet the sentence must be pronounced in public. They succeeded in inducing Pilate to have his chair of justice placed in the open air, on what was called 'the Pavement,' in Hebrew, Gabbatha ('baldness')—a court or platform covered with smooth marble tiles of various colours, or what is called a Mosaic pavement, one of the many decorations which Jerusalem owed to Herod the Great, whose love of fine buildings resembled that of George the Fourth.

As soon, then, as the morning broke, the Jews placed Jesus in bonds before Pilate. While they were waiting for an audience, the priests appear to have been visited by the wretched Judas, who perhaps wished his wicked deed undone the moment it was perpetrated, and who, when he heard that the Sanhedrim had condemned Jesus to death, bitterly repented the base part he had taken. Hastening, therefore, to his employers, he tried to break the bargain, offering to return the price of blood if they would give up their victim. I have sinned!'-the miserable creature in the torment of his soul exclaimed-'I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood.' These hardened men having used, now despised their tool; they accordingly contemptuously replied, 'What is that to us? See thou to that.'

And now the procurator, making his appearance, demanded of the Sanhedrim (Luke xxiii. 23), as its members stood there panting for Christ's blood, what accusation they brought against him. Endeavouring to carry their point with a high hand, they answered that had he not been a malefactor, they should not have placed him at that judgment-seat. This stratagem Pilate met deridingly, saying in effect-O, very well; if you have settled the matter, take and execute him.' Finding that they had overshot the mark, they assumed a less lofty tone, and replied that the procurator was aware that by law they had not the power to put any one to death. They appear to have subjoined a distinct accusation: 'We found him perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king.' How adroit sometimes are wicked men! The Jews were careful to say nothing of the blasphemy imputed to Jesus, lest Pilate should dismiss the case as one turning on a question which to him would look like a compound of superstition and bigotry; at the same time, they forced on the procurator's notice a charge of treason, of which his position compelled him to take cognisance; and in order to make that accusation they hesitated not to invent a falsehood, well knowing that Jesus

had avoided the snare respecting the payment of tribute in which they had tried to catch him.

Pilate, however, knew how unscrupulous their malice was, and resolved to give Jesus a fair hearing; accordingly, returning into the pretorium, whither at first our Lord had as a prisoner been conducted, he asked, 'Art thou the King of the Jews?" Desirous of making Pilate feel that this charge came from bitter enemies, and not from the procurator's own knowledge or suspicions, the accused replied, 'Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?" Contemptuous was the reply, importing that the rough soldier was superior to all such matters: 'Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me; what hast thou done?' Jesus saw that beneath the Pagan scorn there was a certain disposition to deal with him fairly; and therefore, with a view to disarm Pilate's suspicions, and reply to the accusation made by the Sanhedrim, he answered in distinct terms, 'My kingdom is not of this world'—thus in effect declaring that he had committed no act adverse to the Roman dominion. Pilate, however, dexterously fastening on the word 'kingdom,' demanded, 'Art thou a king, then?' 'Yes,' rejoined Jesus; but my empire is truth; for to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth;' immediately adding, with a covert reference to Pilate himself- Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice.' The procurator might have been reminded that a philosophy (the Stoical) now fashionable in Rome had pronounced the wise man a king, and the only king. He could then scarcely fail to comprehend the true import of Christ's answer. Pilate also had, in all probability, received some training in those schools of knotty learning in which the pursuit of truth on theoretical points was constantly carried on and never discovered, but the general tendency of which was to make truth in the abstract an object of ceaseless search and some respect. Thus tacitly appealed to in his educational reminiscences, Pilate, well comprehending what Jesus meant, said either scornfully or regretfully, 'What is truth?' His tone decided his real meaning, which probably imported that, alas! truth was more talked of than known. Certainly the impression on his mind was favourable; for, going out on to the pavement, he honestly declared in emphatic terms, the force of which is badly represented in the English, 'I find no fault in him.'

This was a result which his accusers had not expected. Enraged that their prey should thus be plucked from their teeth, they repeat their accusation with exaggerations, urging that Jesus had endeavoured to raise a rebellion in Galilee as well as Judea. The rage thus manifested made Pilate aware how difficult an affair he had in hand. Judging it best, if he could, to free himself at once from it, he seized the word 'Galilee' voci

ferated by these madmen, and, ascertaining that Jesus was a Galilean, sent him at once to Herod Antipas, to whose jurisdiction Jesus belonged, and who was then in the capital, residing in a palace at the north-west corner of Zion. And now was 'the Lamb of God' in the hands of that fox' (Luke xiii. 32) who had so long marked him for his prey. Brought before Herod and questioned, Jesus answered nothing, well knowing that he had no chance of justice, and that whatever he said would be turned to his disadvantage. His silence, however, provoked his foes, and Herod and his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe.' Herod and Pilate, as neighbouring potentates, were jealous of each other; for Herod wished to obtain power in Judea, and Pilate to extend his dominion into Herod's territories in Galilee. Pleased that Pilate should thus acknowledge his authority in Judea, Herod resolved to seek Pilate's friendship, while as a politician he did not choose to condemn to death in Jerusalem even a Galilean, lest he should appear to presume too far, and bring himself into difficulties at Rome. As a matter of prudence in reality, but ostensibly as a compliment to the procurator, Herod therefore sent Jesus back to Pilate.

Pilate, thus defeated, was obliged to give a decision. He had already declared Jesus innocent. He now acquitted him a second time, and in the fullest manner. The verdict raised a tumult. Afraid of the consequences, that weak and therefore unjust judge, instead of adhering to his words of acquittal, bethought him of another expedient, relying, probably, on the presence of some of the people, whom he thought open to a generous appeal. It was usual for the procurator at the Easter festival to release some criminal chosen by the people. There was in prison a person named Barabbas, one of the sicarii ('assassins'), who waged secret war against those whom they judged opposed to their views in politics. Barabbas lay there awaiting the execution of a sentence of death pronounced against him for insurrection and murder. He was a notorious criminal, and may, on account of the heinousness of his misdeeds, have been mentioned by Pilate in the hope that the people would, when the option was put before them, ask the life of Jesus rather than that of Barabbas. The procurator was disappointed. A yell of fierce bigotry said-'Away with Jesus, and release Barabbas! Pilate observed that the priests instigated the people in this demand, and, fearing the consequences to himself of a refusal, began to waver, though he knew that hatred of Jesus was the moving cause of the accusation. He took his seat on the chair of state, in order to give judgment in a formal manner, when he received a message from his wife, who, having been disturbed in a dreama fact which shows how much Jesus and his fate occupied the public mind-now sent to entreat him to do nothing against