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of God. And thus when Caiaphas rose, and meless avowal of a policy most flagitiously d unjust, haughtily told the Sanhedrin that proposals were mere ignorance, and that the 3 to be done was to sacrifice one victim-innouilty he did not stop to inquire or to define etim for the whole people-ay, and, St. John for that nation only, but for all God's children throughout the world-they accepted unhesithat voice of unconscious prophecy. And by

it they filled to the brim the cup of their and incurred the crime which drew upon their eads the very catastrophe which it was como avert. It was this Moloch worship of worse nan sacrifice which, as in the days of Manasseh, them to a second and a more terrible, and a Auring, destruction. There were some, indeed, e not to be found on that Hill of Evil Counsel,3

5. B. J. iii. 8, §3.

of these conspirators must have lived to learn by the result that -ally wrong never can be politically expedient. The death of the far from saving the nation, precipitated its ruin, and that ruin avily on those who had brought it about. When the Idumeans usalem, "Tous les membres de la caste sacerdotale qu'on put ent tués. Hanan [son of the Gospel Annas'] et Jésus fils de irent d'affreuses insultes; leurs corps furent privés de sépulture, uï chez les Juifs. Ainsi pêrit le fils du principal auteur de la sus. Ce fut . . . . la fin du parti sadducéen, parti souvent oiste et cruel. Avec Hanan périt le vieux sacerdoce juif, grandes familles sadducéennes . . . Grande fut l'impression. contempla jetés nus hors de la ville, livrés aux chiens et aux aristocrates si hautement respectés . . C'était un monde qui t. Incapable de former un État à lui seul il devait en arriver nous le voyons depuis dix-huit siècles, c'est-à-dire à vivre en arasite, dans la république d'autrui." (Renan, L'Antechrist, p. es in all this no hand of God.)

...

the name still given to the traditional site of the house of

or who, if present, consented not to the counsel or will of them; but from that day forth the secret fiat had been issued that Jesus must be put to death. Henceforth He was living with a price upon His head.

And that fiat, however originally secret, became instantly known. Jesus was not ignorant of it; and for the last few weeks of His earthly existence, till the due time had brought round the Passover at which He meant to lay down His life, He retired in secret to a little obscure city, near the wilderness, called Ephraim. There, safe from all the tumults and machinations of His deadly enemies, He spent calmly and happily those last few weeks of rest, surrounded only by His disciples, and training them, in that peaceful seclusion, for the mighty work of thrusting their sickles into the ripening harvests of the world. None, or few beside that faithful band, knew of His hiding place; for the Pharisees, when they found themselves unable to conceal their designs, had published an order that if any man knew where He was, he was to reveal it, that they might seize Him, if necessary even by violence, and execute the decision at which they had arrived. But, as yet, the bribe had no effect.

How long this deep and much-imperilled retirement

1 kúμn μeylorn, Euseb.; "villa praegrandis," Jer.; Oxxvior, Jos. (Keim, III. i. 6.)—There is much uncertainty as to the position of Ephraim; it may possibly have been on the site of the modern village of Et-Taiyibeh, which is near to the wilderness (John xi. 54), and not far from Beitîn, the ancient Bethel (2 Chron. xiii. 19; Jos. B. J. iv. 9, § 9), and about twenty miles to the north of Jerusalem (Jerome, Onomast.). (See Robinson, Bibl. Res. i. 444 seqq.) There is no necessity to suppose with Ebrard (Gosp. Hist. p. 360) that it was south-east of Jerusalem. (The Kethibh, in 2 Chron. xiii. 19, has "Ephron;" the Keri, "Ephraim." Wieseler (Synops. p. 291) elaborately argues that Eusebius is right, as against Jerome, in placing it eight miles from Jerusalem, but this would hardly be far enough for

re not told, nor can we lift the veil of silence llen over its records. If the decision at which in in the house of Caiaphas had arrived was s a formal sentence of death, then it is not that these scrupulous legists may have suffered to elapse for the production of witnesses in he accused. But it is very doubtful whether ction intended for Jesus was not meant to be t in a manner more secret and more summary, e aspect rather of a violent assassination than judgment.

the supposition of Sepp, II. iii. 31, and it derives some the turbid legend of the Talmud, which says that forty days leath (the legal time for the production of witnesses) Jesus municated by Joshua Ben Perachiah, to the blast of 400

"Those mighty voices three,

Ἰησοῦ ἐλέησον με,

Θάρσει, ἔγειραι, φωνεῖ σε,

ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε.”LONGFELLOW.

FROM the conical hill of Ephraim Jesus could see the pilgrim bands as, at the approach of the Passover, they began to stream down the Jordan valley towards Jerusalem, to purify themselves from every ceremonial defilement before the commencement of the Great Feast.1 The time had come for Him to leave his hiding-place, and He descended from Ephraim to the high road in order to join the great caravan of Galilæan pilgrims.

And as He turned His back on the little town, and began the journey which was to end at Jerusalem, a prophetic solemnity and elevation of soul struggling with the natural anguish of the flesh, which shrank from that great sacrifice, pervaded His whole being, and gave a new and strange grandeur to every gesture and every look. It was the Transfiguration of Self-sacrifice; and, like that previous Transfiguration of Glory, it filled those who beheld it with an amazement and terror which

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not explain. There are few pictures in the e striking than this of Jesus going forth to and walking alone along the path into the - while behind Him, in awful reverence, and ticipations of dread and hope-their eyes fixed with bowed head He preceded them in all y of sorrow-the disciples walked behind and disturb His meditations. But at last He beckoned them to Him, and then, once more hird time-with fuller, clearer, more startling, ole particulars than ever before, He told them hould be betrayed to the Priests and Scribes ; ondemned; then handed over to the Gentiles; entiles mocked, scourged, and-He now for me revealed to them, without any ambiguity, ing horror-crucified; and that, on the third hould rise again. But their minds were full of hopes; they were so pre-occupied with the that now the kingdom of God was to come in endour, that the prophecy passed by them like ind; they could not, and would not, understand. can be no more striking comment on their zo realise the meaning of what Jesus had said. than the fact that very shortly after, and during journey, occurred the ill-timed and strangely al request which the Evangelists proceed to With an air of privacy and mystery, Salome, he constant attendants of Jesus, with her two nes and John, who were among the most emiHis Apostles, came to Him with adorations, and .32. Tischendorf, Meyer, &c., accept the reading of , B, C, L, Novboûvres, as though there were two sets of the Apostles, of in their fear had fallen behind the rest.

x. 20-28; Mark x. 35-45; Luke xviii. 32-34.