CHAPTER V.

THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE.

ALONE, save for Judas, bound, followed by a rabble of scoffing partisans of the chief priests and elders, Jesus was led away from the garden of Gethsemane. The guards took Him first to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, a haughty and powerful man. The chief offices of the Temple were filled by members of his family, who were all Sadducees, and had not been vehemently opposed to Christ until His influence with the people began to threaten their own, and to endanger the revenues of the Temple, from which they drew their wealth. Annas, who was an old man, probably did not trouble himself to see the prisoner at that hour of the night, but sent Him on to the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the Great Sanhedrim would assemble as soon as they could be summoned from their various homes.

By this time Peter and John had fallen in with one another; and recovering somewhat from the panic that had seized them, they followed their Master to the high

priest's house. John knew Caiaphas so well as to find easy admittance into his palace, and he went in with Jesus, as near to Him as he could get, that He might see that His beloved disciple had not altogether forsaken Him. But Peter had been unable to get in, and after a while John went and spoke for him to the woman who kept the door, and brought him into the open court of the palace.

The chief priests and elders, who had gone out to Gethsemane with the officers and soldiers, now formed themselves into a preliminary council to examine Jesus, before the Great Sanhedrim could meet. Caiaphas was at the head of it, and asked Him of His disciples and doctrine. As to His disciples Jesus said nothing, but about His doctrine He answered, 'I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and the Temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou Me? ask them which heard Me.' Most of those who were present had heard Him in the Temple; the guards had once said, 'Never man spake like this man.' But now one of them struck Him for answering the high priest so. It was yet an hour or two before daybreak, at which time the Sanhedrim was to assemble, and it would seem that Caiaphas at this time left Christ to the wicked cruelties of his servants. Probably they led Him from the hall, where this brief examination had taken place, into the open court, when they blindfolded Him, and striking Him on the face,

cried mockingly, 'Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?' Other insults they heaped upon Him, with the rude brutality of men who knew that they should not offend their masters by such misconduct.

It was a chilly night, and the servants had kindled a fire in the court, Peter standing with them to warm himself. Before his Master was brought out to be mocked and insulted, one of the maids of the high priest, looking at him, said, 'Thou also wert with Jesus of Nazareth.' He was instantly and naturally filled with fear, and denied it at once, saying, 'I do not understand what thou sayest. I am not one of His disciples.' He felt it to be wisest to withdraw from the circle round the fire, and retreated into the darkness of the porch. It was already drawing near to daybreak, for a cock crew as he stood in the gateway. Then the woman who kept the door asked him again, 'Art thou not one of this man's disciples?' 'I am not,' he replied shortly. Once more, feeling nowhere safe, yet reluctant to quit the palace, he returned into the court, where, it may be, his Lord was now standing, bearing in silence the cruelties of the servants. kinsman of Malchus, whose ear he had cut off in Gethsemane, soon asked him, 'Did not I see thee in the garden with Him?' They that stood by said confidently, 'Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech betrayeth thee.' Then Peter began to curse and to swear, 'I know not this man of whom ye speak.' His Lord, who heard his oaths,

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turned, and looked upon him, and he remembered the word He had spoken, 'Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice.' He had not believed himself so cowardly and disloyal. Even now he dared not stand forth and own himself a disciple of the mocked and despised prophet of Nazareth; but creeping away from the palace, with that last look of his Master haunting him, he went out into the dawning of the day, and wept bitterly. Worse than the insults of the servants must have been the vehement denials of His disciple, and Peter could not fail to remember the awful saying, 'Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels.'

By daybreak the Sanhedrim were assembled, and Jesus. was brought before them. They had all been seeking witnesses against Him, but none could be found whose witness agreed. It was necessary that at least two should agree. After a while there came forward two men, one of whom testified he had heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple, that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.' The accusation took a more doubtful form with the other witness, 'I am able to destroy this temple of God, and to build it in three days.' Even this testimony did not agree sufficiently. Neither the high priest, nor the Sanhedrim, eager as they were to convict Him, could be

satisfied to do so on such paltry evidence. Jesus was standing before them, questioning nothing, answering nothing; giving them no chance of fastening upon any indiscreet words. The scene altogether must have been unutterably painful to Him, apart from His own position. The great religious body of the nation, the most learned in the law, the most irreproachable in character, the men presumed to be the wisest and best of the nation, were shamelessly seeking evidence by which they might condemn to death a prophet, of whom no man knew any evil.

At last Caiaphas stood up in the midst, in his office as high priest, and adjured Christ by the living God to tell them whether He was the Messiah, the Son of God. 'I am,' He replied; 'and ye shall see the Son of Man on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.' There was no further need of perjured witAll had heard the awful words. Caiaphas rent his clothes, crying, 'He hath spoken blasphemy! What think ye?' With one voice they all declared Him to be worthy of death.

nesses.

Jesus knew when He uttered these words that He was pronouncing His own sentence. Until that question was asked Him He had been dumb, opening not His mouth. But the form in which the question was put left Him no choice but to answer. The moment in which He most distinctly claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God, was the moment when such a claim was His