heard of the mighty miracles of Jesus, and that all were at any rate aware that He claimed to be a Prophet; that the manner in which He met this large multitude, which the alarms of Judas had dictated as essential to His capture, suggested the likelihood of some appeal to supernatural powers; that they were engaged in one of those deeds of guilty violence and midnight darkness which paralyse the stoutest minds. When we bear this in mind, and when we remember too that on many occasions in His history the mere presence and word of Christ had sufficed to quell the fury of the multitude, and to keep Him safe in the midst of them, it hardly needs any recourse to miracle to account for the fact that these official marauders and their infamous guide recoiled from those simple words, "I am He," as though the lightning had suddenly been flashed into their faces. While they stood cowering and struggling there, He again asked them, "Whom are ye seeking? Again they replied, "Jesus of Nazareth." "I told you," He answered, "that I am He. If, then, ye are seeking me, let these go away." For He Himself had said in His prayer, "Of those whom Thou hast given me have I lost none." The words were a signal to the Apostles that they could no longer render Him any service, and that they might now consult their own safety if they would. But when they saw that He meant to offer no resistance, that He was indeed about to surrender Himself to His enemies, some pulse of nobleness or of shame throbbed in the impetuous soul of Peter; and hopeless and useless as all resistance had now become, he yet drew his sword, and with a feeble and ill-aimed blow severed the ear of 1 Luke iv. 30; John vii. 30; viii. 59; x. 39; Mark xi. 18 (see Vol. I., p. 228, &c.) PETER AND MALCHUS. 323 a man named Malchus, a servant of the High Priest. Instantly Jesus stopped the ill-timed and dangerous struggle. 'Return that sword of thine into its place,' He said to Peter, "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword;" and then He reproachfully asked His rash disciple whether he really supposed that He could not escape if He would? whether the mere breathing of a prayer would not secure for Himhad He not voluntarily intended to fulfil the Scriptures by drinking the cup which His Father had given Him -the aid, not of twelve timid Apostles, but of more than twelve legions of angels ?" And then, turning to the soldiers who were holding Him, He said, "Suffer ye thus far," and in one last act of miraculous mercy touched and healed the wound. In the confusion of the night this whole incident seems to have passed unnoticed except by a very few. At any rate, it made no impression upon these hardened men. Their terror had quite vanished, and had been replaced by insolent confidence. The Great Prophet had voluntarily resigned Himself; He was their helpless captive. No thunder had rolled; no angel flashed down from heaven for His deliverance; no miraculous fire devoured amongst them. They saw before them nothing but a weary unarmed man, whom one of His own 1 A legion during the Empire consisted of about 6,000 men. The fact that St. John alone mentions the names of St. Peter and Malchus may arise simply from his having been more accurately acquainted than the other Evangelists with the events of that heart-shaking scene; but there is nothing absurd or improbable in the current supposition, that the name of Peter may have been purposely kept in the background in the earliest cycle of Christian records. 2 This may either mean, "Let me free for one moment only, while I heal this wounded man," as Alford not improbably understands it; or, "Excuse this single act of resistance." 66 most intimate followers had betrayed, and whose arrest was simply watched in helpless agony by a few terrified Galilæans. They had fast hold of Him, and already some chief priests, and elders, and leading officers of the Temple-guard had ventured to come out of the dark background from which they had securely seen His capture, and to throng about Him in insulting curiosity. To these especially1 He turned, and said to them, “ Have ye come out as against a robber with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the Temple ye did not stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness." quenched the last gleam of hope in the minds of His followers. "Then His disciples, all of them " 2—even the fiery Peter, even the loving John-" forsook Him, and fled." At that supreme moment only one unknown youth-perhaps the owner of Gethsemane, perhaps St. Mark the Evangelist, perhaps Lazarus the brother of Those fatal words πρὸς τοὺς προσγενομένους πρὸς αὐτὸν 2 Matt. xxvi. 56, oi μaental távtes. Many readers will thank me here for quoting the fine lines from Browning's Death in the Desert : "Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured, Him Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life? What should wring this from thee? Ye laugh and ask The sudden Roman faces, violent hands, And fear of what the Jews might do! Just that, And it is written, 'I forsook and fled.' There was my trial, and it ended thus." 3 Mark xiv. 51, 52 only. As to the supposition that it was Lazarus— founded partly on the locality, partly on the probabilities of the case, partly on the fact that the odav was a garment that only a person of some wealth would possess-see a beautiful article on “Lazarus,” by Professor Plumptre, in the Dict. of the Bible. Ewald's supposition, that it was St. Paul (!), seems to me amazing. The word Ding, youròs, though, like the Latin nudus, it constantly means "with only the under robe on (1 Sam. xix. 24; John xxi. 7; Hes. 'Epy., 391; Virg. G. i. 299), is here probably literal. BOUND AND LED AWAY. 325 Martha and Mary-ventured, in his intense excitement, to hover on the outskirts of the hostile crowd. He had apparently been roused from sleep, for he had nothing to cover him except the sindón, or linen sheet, in which he had been sleeping. But the Jewish emissaries, either out of the mere wantonness of a crowd at seeing a person in an unwonted guise, or because they resented his too close intrusion, seized hold of the sheet which he had wrapped about him; whereupon he too was suddenly terrified, and fled away naked, leaving the linen garment in their hands. Jesus was now absolutely alone in the power of His enemies. At the command of the tribune His hands were tied behind His back,1 and forming a close array around Him, the Roman soldiers, followed and surrounded by the Jewish servants, led Him once more through the night, over the Kedron, and up the steep city slope beyond it, to the palace of the High Priest. 1 John xviii. 12. CHAPTER LVIII. JESUS BEFORE THE PRIESTS AND THE SANHEDRIN. 17 'n 117, “Be slow in judgment.”—Pirke Abhôth, i. 1. ALTHOUGH Sceptics have dwelt with disproportioned persistency upon a multitude of "discrepancies" in the fourfold narrative of Christ's trial, condemnation, death, and resurrection, yet these are not of a nature to cause the slightest anxiety to a Christian scholar; nor need they awaken the most momentary distrust in any one who even if he have no deeper feelings in the matter -approaches the Gospels with no preconceived theory, whether of infallibility or of dishonesty, to support, and merely accepts them for that which, at the lowest, they claim to be histories honest and faithful up to the full knowledge of the writers, but each, if taken alone, confessedly fragmentary and obviously incomplete. After repeated study, I declare, quite fearlessly, that though the slight variations are numerous-though the lesser particulars cannot in every instance be rigidly and minutely accurate though no one of the narratives taken singly would give us an adequate impressionyet, so far from there being, in this part of the Gospel story, any irreconcilable contradiction, it is perfectly possible to discover how one Evangelist supplements the |