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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Then all of a sudden the heart of Jesus sank within him. He saw the woman pluck the fruit of the tree. He made as if to rush forward to warn them that the tree was poisoned, but before he could realize what had happened, the woman had eaten a piece herself and had given another to her lord and master, the man. Jesus did not want to look in that direction any more. He knew what the inevitable result of that fruit was.
Then he turned his gaze towards Jerusalem, and saw, as if by the power of clairvoyance, the chief priests and elders gathered together, planning and plotting his own destruction. He saw Judas Iscariot sitting in their midst with what looked like some pieces of silver before him, and heard the arrangement arrived at between them for his betrayal. But the scene did not affect him in the least; he was only amazed (Mark, XIV. 33) at their short-sightedness. His mind had already been made up; the temporary fit of weakness had passed. In the whole of the holy land of Palestine he was the one man who knew the secret of sin. Should he allow the handful of purblind fools of the Scribes and Pharisees to stand between him and his duty to the whole race ?
When at the end of his forty days' austerities in the forest he had not yielded to the voice of temptation, which had pointed out that all the pomp and power and greatness which man can possibly desire in this world was his, if he would but use his powers for their acquisition, and had preferred to carry out his ministry, how could he now be swayed away from the course which he had chalked out for himself ? That settled the point,
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